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THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 



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/33a 


THE 


Garden of Eden. 



GEORGE YEAGER, A. M. 

a ‘ 



PHILADELPHIA J 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1873- 


/ 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


Lippincott’s Press, 
Philadelphia. 


1 1 


CONTENTS 


fc> 


CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Where was Eden ? 7 

CHAPTER II. 

The Garden 22 

CHAPTER HI. 

The Entrance 33 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Trees 47 

CHAPTER V. 

The Rivers 59 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Rivers Pison 68 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Gihon 78 

1 * 5 


6 


Contents. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

The Hiddekel 88 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Euphrates 98 

CHAPTER X. 

Dressing and Keeping the Garden 108 

CHAPTER XL 

The Food 118 



THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 


CHAPTER I. 
WHERE WAS EDEN? 


OTHER, where was Eden ?” asked Alice 
Harland. 

In the heart, my dear.” 

I thought it was a beautiful garden, with trees 
and flowers, and birds and gentle lambs, and 
rivers. But how can the heart hold all these?” 

‘‘ It may be very large : our heavenly Father 


can make it so.” 

But how can Eden be in the heart ?” 

‘‘ Eden, my dear, means love — God’s love in 
the heart.” 


7 



8 The Garden of Eden. 

And what are the trees, and rivers, and ani- 
mals ?” 

These are all emblems or symbols of the 
thoughts and affections which the Lord plants in 
the heart when we love him above all. When we 
read what the Bible says about the garden, we can 
tell what kind of people our first parents were.” 

“ How ? How can we tell ?” 

“ By the things that were in the garden.” 

“ Tell me about it, mother. Make it all plain 
and easy to understand, as you did the parables.” 

“ It will give me great pleasure to do so. When 
shall we begin ?” 

“ Now; tell me now, please.” 

“ Shall we read the account from the Bible, as 
we did the parables ?” 

Yes, mother ; let us begin at the very com- 
mencement of the story. It will be so interesting ! 
Won’t it, Mary dear?” she said, addressing her 
sister, who was a few years older than herself. 
“ You can be sewing, and can listen at the same 
time.” 

“Yes, so I can,” answered Mary. “And, 
Frank, won’t you help us? We shall have to refer 


Where was Eden? 


9 


all the hard words to you. You are so good at 
finding out what it says in the original, as you 
call it.” 

Why, really, Mary, I do not feel sure about 
being able to help you very much. I may tell 
you a little about the original, but mother can 
explain the symbols so beautifully that I think 
you will not care about what it says in the Hebrew, 
or what this or that commentator says about it. 
Mother’s the oracle on symbols. I almost believe 
the trees and birds speak to her. At any rate, 
she seems to know what they mean.” 

‘‘Frank,” said his mother, “the invisible 
things of Him from the creation of the world are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
are made.” 

“Love has eyes,” said Frank ; “ I believe you 
see God in everything.” 

“He is in everything,” she replied, “and 
everything speaks forth his praises. If we refuse 
to say, ‘ Blessed be the King that cometh in the 
name of the Lord,’ the stones would immediately 
cry out. Now, Alice dear, have you found the 
place ?” 


lo The Garden of Eden. 

Yes, mother ; it begins at the eighth verse of 
the second chapter of Genesis : ‘ And the Lord 
God planted a garden eastward in Eden.’ ” 

‘‘We should begin at the seventh verse, where 
it tells how man was formed and the breath of 
life was breathed into his nostrils.” 

“ It should read, ‘ the breath of lives,’ ’<’ said 
Frank. 

“ Had he more than one life ?” asked Alice. 

“ Man has two lives,” said her mother ; “ one 
is receptive of love, the other of truth.” 

“ Do I have these two lives ?” inquired Alice. 

“ Do you love and think ?” 

“You know I do j I love everybody, and I 
think — oh, I can’t help thinking, except when 
I’m asleep.” 

“ Then you have these two lives, my dear. 
Perhaps Frank can tell us what they are called by 
the learned ?” 

“ One is generally called the will, and the 
other the understanding.” 

“ Are there no others ?” inquired Mary. 

“No,” said Frank; “I have examined the 


Where was Eden ? 


1 1 

matter carefully. Phrenologists enumerate about 
forty faculties of the mind, but I find them all 
included in the will and understanding. All 
moral, domestic and selfish sentiments belong to 
the former, and the intellectual and reasoning 
powers to the latter.” 

I am afraid Alice will not comprehend your 
nice distinctions : they are above her understanding. 
She wills or wishes to hear about Eden.” 

“Yes, mother; I can’t understand about facul- 
ties. Just let’s have the story.” 

“Well, my dear, the lives are the life of love 
and the life of faith. He loved God with all his 
heart, and believed everything he told him with 
all his understanding.” 

“He must have been very good,” said Alice ; 
“I can tell, because he lived in such a beautiful 
garden. Wasn’t God very good to him?” 

God is good to all.” 

“Why doesn’t he give them all gardens?” 

“ He does; you will understand after I explain. 
Look at the verse, and see how he received his 
lives.” 

Alice turned to the verse, and, after thinking 


The Garden of Eden. 


a while, answered : ‘ The Lord God breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of lives.’ ” 

“ So must all good and truth come to us. God 
must breathe them into us.” 

“ Don’t we have to do anything to get him to 
breathe into us?” 

“ No, my dear; he is more willing to give than 
we are to receive. He is all the time striving by 
his Holy Spirit to breathe his love into our hearts 
and his truth into our understandings ; and if 
we do not shut them out, they will enter, and make 
us living souls.' ^ 

“ The word breath is used for life in Job xxxiii. 
4,” said Frank. ‘‘‘There is a spirit (breath) in 
man, and the inspiration (inbreathing) of the Al- 
mighty giveth them understanding.’ ” 

“Yes,” said Mrs. Harland ; “and you will re- 
member our Saviour breathed upon his disciples, 
saying, ‘Receive ye the Holy Spirit.’ ” 

“And now can’t we talk about the garden?” 
asked Alice. 

“Just one more question for Frank, my dear, 
before we fully enter upon our story.” 

“What is that?” asked Frank. 


Where was Eden ? 


3 


“ Do you notice any peculiar change in the name 
of God, as used in the first and second chapters?” 

Frank looked carefully. 

‘‘Why,” said he, “it is very strange! All 
through the first chapter, and to the fourth verse 
of the second, he is called God ; but afterward, 
all through the second chapter, he is called the 
Lord God.” 

“Examine your Hebrew Bible,” said his 
mother. 

“In the first chapter he is constantly named 
Elohim ; in the second, after the fourth verse, Je- 
hovah.” 

“ How is it in the third chapter?”' 

“ The name is Jehovah, except when the ser- 
pent is represented as speaking ; then I find Elo- 
him again. I never observed this before. Why 
is it?” 

“The name Jehovah is applied to the essential 
being of the Deity, the I AM THx\T I AM of 
Exodus iii. 14 ; God, or Elohim, to his manifes- 
tative power. His being is the Divine Life or 
Love; his power, the Divine Wisdom, the Divine 
Truth or the Word.” 


2 


14 


The Garden of Eden. 


‘^And why does the name Jehovah not occur 
till we come to the second chapter?” 

“Because the subject changes. Here it is the 
Divine Love or Life that breathes into man, and 
he now first lives ^ in the true sense of that word. 
The Lord’s life, or his love as the life principle, 
now rules in him. Before, he was only an image 
of God ; now he is his likeness. Before, he be- 
lieved, or was spiritually minded ; now he loves, 
or is heavenly minded. Before, he labored and 
was heavy laden ; now he rests. He has entered 
upon the Sabbath of the soul. He is in Eden, 
the Lord’s love. ‘ God is love, and he that 
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in 
him.’ ” 

“ And what is the subject of the first chapter?” 

“The creative work, as representing man’s re- 
generation by the Divine Wisdom or Truth, the 
Elohim.” 

“It is wonderful,” said Frank; “it is new to 
me. Our Hebrew professor often talked about 
these names, but the more he said, the more ob- 
scure the subject seemed to me.” 

“And how does it seem to Alice, dear? I am 


Where zvas' Eden ? 


15 

afraid you are becoming very tired of our learned 
talk.” 

“I cannot understand it all, but still I like to 
hear it. It makes me think how very great and 
good our heavenly Father is. And the Bible — 
it is wonderful !” 

Yes,” said Frank ; ‘‘I think I shall make it 
one of my special studies. It opens to me a new 
world of thought.” 

“And, Mary, what do you think?” asked her 
mother. 

“Think!” she replied. “I do more than 
think about him : I love him ! Oh how good 
he is!” 

“ Why do you love him ?” 

“Because he first loved me.” 

“Yes, Mary,” said her mother; “God is 
love.” 

“Isn’t he angry with the wicked?” asked 
Alice. 

“The Lord hath no pleasure in the death of 
the wicked, but rather that he turn to him and 
live.” 

“But the Bible says he is angry with them. 


1 6 The Garden of Eden. 

filled with indignation and wrath, taking ven- 
geance upon them, visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate him,” said 
Frank. 

‘‘Such emotions, when attributed to the Lord, 
are more properly the expression of his intense 
love for the sinner. The feeling is directed rather 
against the evil than the person who commits it. 
It never degenerates into hate. Read Mark iii. 5. ” 

“And Jesus looked round on them in anger, 
being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.” 

“Here grief is the origin of his anger. In 
such case anger is the warmth of love, and not 
the fire of hatred,” said his mother. 

“I am satisfied,” said Frank; “I have often 
thought it very strange that God should have any 
such passions as we generally understand by those 
words. But what mean the worm that dies not, 
and the fire that is not quenched, of which we 
read in Mark ix. 46 ? This language seems the 
strongest that can possibly be employed to de- 
scribe the condition of the lost.” 

“And yet,” said his mother, “it falls far short 


Where was Edenf 


17 


of the sad reality, for falsity, reigning in the place 
of truth, is the worm that dies not, but for ever 
holds its carnival, preying upon and corroding 
the life, making it eternal torment ; whilst evil, 
fully consummated in the heart entirely closed 
against good and truth from the Lord, is the fire 
that is not quenched, but for ever burns in the in- 
most of the life, making it eternal death. Thus 
it is with the wicked, who, when they pass from 
this world, mingle in spirit with their like, and in 
the aggregate form the hell, or spiritual world of 
woe — that everlasting punishment, the direct op- 
posite of the state of angelic purity and love 
called everlasting life.” 

“It is dreadful,” said Alice. 

“Yes,” said Frank, “worse than material 
fire.” 

“It is the death of the soul,” said Mary. 

“ Does the soul die?” asked Alice. 

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” said her 
mother. 

“I see how it is,” said Frank: “sinning is 
dying to the good and true as they are with and 
from the Lord, and sin, when fully wrought into 
2 * B 


8 


The Garden of Eden. 


the life, is a living death, a worm that dies not 
and a fire that is not quenched. Thus to live is 
to die, while to die unto sin is to live.” 

“And now, mother,” asked Alice, “where is 
heaven, the home of the beautiful angels?” 

“ The kingdom of heaven is within you, if the 
Lord’s love dwell in your heart.” 

“Is it not a real world like this in which we 
live ?” 

“ Yes, my dear ; its outward scenes correspond 
to the inward purity and wisdom of its blessed 
inhabitants, and are far more real, substantial 
and beautiful than those of earth.” 

“ Why can we not see them ?” 

“ Because we are not yet prepared.” 

“ When shall we be ?” 

“When we have entirely parted with earth 
and the evils and falsities of this life, then will 
be drawn aside the veil that hides from us the 
heavenly world ; and entering into the glorious 
light of the Sun of righteousness, we shall behold 
those blissful realms where all is peace and joy — 
a celestial paradise with its ‘tree of life,’ ‘its 
never withering flowers,’ its ‘sweet fields’ that 


Where was Eden ? 


19 


ever ‘stand dressed in living green,’ and its 
‘ many mansions ’ that Jesus has prepared for 
those who love him.” 

“ What will we do there?” 

“ Become more and more the recipients of the 
Lord’s life, of his love and wisdom, of his good- 
ness and truth, and thus take our place among 
those pre-eminently blessed ones through whom 
and by whom his will is done.” 

“ Shall we see him?” 

“Surely, my dear. He himself has said, 
‘ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God.’ And in i John iii. 2 we read, ‘When he 
shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall 
see him as he is.’ ” 

“How I long for the time!” said Mary, and 
she quoted the following lines of Charles Wesley : 

“ Talk with us, Lord, thyself reveal. 

While here o’er earth we rove ; 

Speak to our hearts, and let us feel 
The kindlings of thy love. 

‘‘ With thee conversing we forget 
All time, and toil, and care ; 


20 


The Garden of Eden. 


Labor is rest, and pain is sweet, 

If thou, my God, art here. 

“ Thou callest me to seek thy face — 

’Tis all I wish to seek, 

To attend the whispers of thy grace, 

And hear thee inly speak. 

“ Let this my every hour employ. 

Till I thy glory see, 

Enter into my Master’s joy, 

And find my heaven in thee.” 

“And now,” said Mrs. Harland, “when shall 
we continue our conversation on these blessed 
themes?” 

“ I hope it will be very soon,” said Alice — “ the 
first evening dear father is home.” 

“ I thought you would not forget your dear 
father; but before we separate for the evening, 
will you repeat the part of the verse we have 
studied ?” 

Alice read : “ The Lord God breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of lives.” 

“And the lives were — ” 

“ Love and faith.” 


Where was Eden f 


21 


‘‘ Eden means — ’ ’ 

“Love, supreme love to the Lord.” 

“ Let us ask him to breathe into our hearts this 
love.” 

They knelt in prayer. 

The Lord heard them. 




CHAPTER 11. 


THE GARDEN. 



N a few days, Mr. Harland returned from 
his business tour. 

Alice was in ecstacies : 

‘‘Oh, father, I am so glad you have come! 
Such a beautiful story mother is telling us 1 We 
are waiting for you to hear it.” 

“What’s it all about?” 

“Eden. God’s love in the heart.” 

“ How many chapters have you had?” 

“ Only one ; it is too good to have it all to our- 
selves.” 

“ When is it to be continued?” 

“The first evening you are at home.” 

“ That will be this evening. Afterward, every 
Thursday evening. You know that belongs to 
22 




The Garden. 


23 

you, according to the old articles of agreement in 
this case made and provided.” 

‘‘Thank you; I am so glad.” 

In the evening all were ready. 

“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward 
in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had 
formed.” Thus Alice read from Genesis ii. 8. 

“Would you like to hear about the garden?” 
asked Mrs. Harland. 

“Yes, mother.” 

“Will Frank read the last clause of Isaiah 
Iviii. 1 1 ?” 

“And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and 
like a spring whose waters fail not.” 

“ The mind, when filled with intelligence and 
wisdom, is In Scripture often represented by a 
watered garden,” said Mrs. Harland; “and when 
it constantly receives fresh supplies from Him who 
is the Divine Truth itself, it becomes a medium 
of communicating truth to all who come within 
the sphere of its influence, a spring whose waters 
fail not.” 

Frank then read from Isaiah li. 3 : 

“The Lord shall comfort Zion: he will make 


24 The Garden of Eden. 

her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the 
garden of the Lord.” 

“ Does it not read, ‘ the garden of Jehovah,’ in 
the Hebrew?” 

“Yes, mother.” 

“ I thought so ; the name of the Lord is printed 
in small capitals in our English version.” 

“ Does it always mean Jehovah when the name 
is so printed?” asked Mary. 

“Always, my dear.” 

“Thank you; it will help me very much in my 
future readings.” 

“ But what is the meaning of this verse?” in- 
quired Frank. 

“Zion represents the church as receptive of 
love from Jehovah, who is the Divine Love itself,” 
answered his mother. “ When the church for- 
sakes him, it comes into a state in which it pos- 
sesses but little spiritual life and light, and is rep- 
resented by a wilderness but little cultivated and 
with few inhabitants ; if it recede still farther, it 
becomes destitute of goodness and truth, and is 
represented by a desert waste and uninhabited. 
When it turns to the Lord, it is again filled with 


The Garden. 


25 


goodness and truth inflowing from him. ‘ He 
comforts Zion : he makes her wilderness like 
Eden, and her desert like the garden of the 
Lord.’ ” 

Again Frank read, this time from Ezekiel 
xxviii. 12, 13: 

‘‘Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty: thou 
hast been in Eden, the garden of God.” 

“What is the name of God here in the He- 
brew ?’ ’ 

“Elohim,” said Frank; “and I know the rea- 
son. The mind, when it receives intelligence and 
truth from the Divine Love, is called the garden 
of J^ehovah, and when from the Divine Truth 
the garden of GodT 

“And when is it represented by the garden of 
Eden?” 

“When it is under the controlling influence of 
love to Him who is love itself and wisdom itself.” 

“You express yourself very well,” said his 
mother; “now read from Solomon’s Song, iv. 

12, 13, I 5 -” 

“A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse: 
thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with 
3 


26 


The Garden of Eden. 


pleasant fruits : a fountain of gardens, a well of 
living waters and streams from Lebanon.” 

^‘This garden represents the church,” said 
Mary; “our pastor recently preached upon this 
very text. He said the church was the Lord’s 
Spouse and Christ was the Bridegroom.” 

“And the church is called the Bride, the 
Lamb’s Wife,” said Frank. 

“All these gardens, then, are only in the 
mind. Is that the idea?” said Mr. Harland. 

“They are representative,” said Alice. 

“Not real gardens, like the park?” 

“ Oh yes, father ; we can see them, and walk in 
the green fields and among the beautiful trees, 
and gather the pretty flowers and the golden 
fruits.” 

“Where?” 

“In heaven.” 

“ But that’s a great way off, is it not ?” 

“No, father, you know it is not. It is in the 
heart and all around us. ‘The kingdom of 
heaven is within you.’ Mother says, when we 
have love in the heart, we are in a beautiful 
garden and a beautiful home. The angels are all 


The Garden. 


27 

around us, ministering to them that shall be heirs 
of salvation, and Jesus is in the midst.” 

Have you ever seen them ?” 

Not with these eyes ; I will have to die first !” 

Her father looked upon her in wonder at her 
simple, childlike faith. But he loved to hear her 
talk upon these sacred themes, and continued : 

‘‘What is dying, Alice dear?” 

“ Dying is but going home.” 

“And do you want to die and leave us so lone- 
some ?” 

“ No, father, but I want to be an angel.” 

“ An angel ! I do believe you are one — a min- 
istering angel;” and he put his arm about her 
and kissed her. 

“And now,” said Mrs. Harland, “the garden 
was eastward in Eden. The East ! I love that 
name. It is full of hallowed memories. It tells 
me of the bright morning star heralding the 
dawn — of the glorious Sun of righteousness that 
never sets, but is always arising with healing in 
his wings. The garden eastward in Eden — the 
mind, with all its treasures, turned or consecrated 
to the Lord and filled with his love ! ’ ’ 


28 


The Garden of Eden. 


“Beautiful !” said Frank; “ first, man has his 
lives — his love and faith — and then he lives, 
directing all the energies of mind and body to the 
service of him whose love warms and cheers his 
heart.” 

“ Is all that in the Bible?” asked Mr. Harland. 

“Yes, dear; the language of the Bible suggests 
it all,” said Mrs. Harland. 

“I thought it seemed like mounting on wings, 
as eagles?” 

“Why, my dear, that is very like what it does 
mean. The soaring of the eagle symbolizes the 
elevation of the truths of faith to the celestial 
light of love to the Lord.” 

“Your language of symbols seems to enable 
you to interpret everything. Why don’t they 
teach it in the schools ?” 

“It is taught in one.” 

“ What school is that ?” 

“The school of Christ. He taught in para- 
bles.” 

“Yes,” said Alice, “and h^ planted the 
garden.” 

“ Oh, then he^s a planter too, is he ?” 


The Garden. 


29 

‘‘And the seed is the Word of God,” said 
Mrs. Harland. 

“Then to plant the seed is to put the truth of 
God’s Word into the ground of the heart,” said 
Frank. 

“Suppose the ground is not good?” suggested 
his father. 

“ The seed would not grow and bear fruit. 
The truth would not do any good.” 

“And there would soon be a famine in the 
land,” said his mother. 

“A famine !” said Mr. Harland — “a famine in 
the land ? What has truth to do with famines?” 

“ I mean a famine of the soul. But if he 
plants the garden eastward in Eden, the seeds 
will all grow and produce the goodliest trees, 
bearing the golden fruits of love and charity.” 

“And the planting is done by the Lord as the 
Divine Good, the Lord God,” said Frank. 
“How beautifully the symbols all agree! The 
words seem to live and speak. ’ ’ 

“They are spirit and they are life,” said his 
mother. “And the Lord does all the work: he 
even puts the man into the garden.” 


30 


The Garden of Eden. 


“How good he is!” said Alice; “I hope he 
will put me in.” 

“Yes,” said Mary, “to go no more out for 
ever.” 

“ Why, you’d be a prisoner,” said Mr. Harland. 

“One of the Lord’s most willing captives,” 
she replied, “conquered by love divine.” 

“Where’s the doctrine of free-agency 'in that 
case ? It’s all gone to the winds, isn't it?” 

“By no means,” answered Mrs. Harland; 
“the love of Christ constraineth us: we are not 
really free until this be so. ‘ We have not the 
spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.’ A child is not a 
prisoner in his father’s house.” 

“I hope not,” said Mr. Harland. 

“No,” continued Mrs. Harland, “if the Lord 
has formed us, or made us his, and breathed into 
us the breath of lives, we shall all live in the 
heavenly garden and be happy there for ever. ’ ’ 

“Well, my dear, I believe it all — from my 
very heart I believe it. You know I was only 
trying to help you.” 

“ We understand.” 


The Garden. 


31 

“You’re a dear, dear, good father; how I love 
you!” said Alice. 

“And now,” said her mother, “what is repre- 
sented by the garden of Eden ?’ ’ 

‘ ^ The mind filled with intelligence and wisdom, ’ ’ 
answered Alice. 

“ By the east ?” 

“ The rising Sun of righteousness, the Lord him- 
self.” 

“ Eastward ?” 

“ Toward him ; directed toward him.” 

“Jehovah planted?” 

“The Divine Love sowed the seed.” 

“ Yes, planted it in the mind, so that man might 
be filled with intelligence and truth, and be wise 
unto salvation.” 

They sang : 

“ Thy gardens and thy gallant walks 
Continually are green ; 

There grow such sweet and pleasant flowers 
As nowhere else are seen. 

“ And there they live in such delight, 

Such pleasure and such play, 


32 


The Garden of Eden. 


As that to them a thousand years 
Doth seem as yesterday.” 


They knelt in prayer. 

As Alice was going to her room her father said, 
Don’t forget next Thursday evening, Alice 
dear. ’ ’ 

‘‘No, father; good-night!” 




CHAPTER III. 

THE ENTRANCE. 

HE successive stages through which man 
passed before he was prepared to enter 
into the state of supreme love to the Lord, 
which is represented by Eden, are described in 
the first chapter of Genesis,” said Mrs. Harland. 
‘‘The account begins at the second verse. Will 
Alice read it ?” 

“The earth was without form and void, and 
darkness was upon the face of the deep.” 

“Thus is represented man's condition before 
he was brought under the influence of the Spirit 
of God,” said her mother. 

“In the Hebrew,” said Frank, “the passage 
reads, ‘ the earth was vacuity and emptiness.’ But 
then we have two words of precisely the same 

meaning. Why is this?” 

C 



33 




34 The Garden of Eden. 

To denote that the natural man is destitute of 
both goodness and truth. Such double expres- 
sions are common in the sacred Scriptures. One 
term relates to things of the will, the other to those 
of the understanding.” 

‘^What is represented by the darkness?” in- 
quired Frank. 

“Ignorance of spiritual things.” 

“ By the face of the deep ?” 

“ Interior lusts, or merely natural desires, which 
characterize man in this state.” 

“But why use the expression face of the deep 
to denote interior things?” 

“Because the face corresponds to the interior 
affections and thoughts.” 

“ Not in all cases, surely. I have at times seen 
a countenance of almost angelic sweetness masking 
a heart fiiled with the most debasing human pas- 
sions.” 

“ This is because man, in his present condition, 
is able to disguise the evil within him. But in 
the hereafter he will be divested of these false 
appearances, and then his face will be the true 
outward manifestation of the interior emotions and 


The Entrance. 


35 


thoughts of his heart. ‘ There is nothing covered 
that shall not be revealed ; neither hid that shall 
not be known.’ This meaning of tlie word face 
will help you to understand many passages of the 
Word of God. Please open your concordance 
and select a few of the most pertinent, and see 
how you would interpret them.” 

Frank read the following: ‘Jacob fled from 
the face of Esau ’ — that is, he feared the evil pur- 
poses that seemed to. be in his heart. ‘ Then shalt 
thou lift up thy face without spot ’ — thou shalt be 
characterized by good affections without any ad- 
mixture of evil. ‘ Lift up thy face unto God ’ — 
elevate thy affections toward him. ‘ The wicked 
man hardens his face ’ — his heart or affections. 
‘ Anoint thy head, and wash thy face ’ — purify thy 
affections. ‘ Face answereth to face ’ — affection is 
mutual. ‘ Angels behold the face of my Father ’ — 
his love. ‘ His face did shine as the sun ’ — such 
was the outward appearance of his love. I am de- 
lighted to find these passages so replete with in- 
struction when unfolded according to their internal 
meaning. 

“And yet we are learning merely the first prin- 


3 ^ 


The Garden of Eden. 


ciples of this science which treats of the corre- 
spondence of natural or outward things with those 
which are spiritual or internal. When we apply 
this mode of interpretation to the history of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, of Moses and the 
children of Israel, and to the prophecies, and to 
the four Gospels and the Apocalypse, we find that 
everywhere the Word is spirit and life, and from 
Genesis to the book of Revelation opens to us 
the deep things of the Lord’s life and kingdom. 
But we must proceed with our subject. Will 
Alice read the concluding sentence of the second 
verse ?’ ’ 

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters.” 

Does the word face here signify interior 
things?” inquired Frank. 

Yes ; the face of the waters represents interior 
knowledge.” 

“The word is faces in the original. Is this so 
because it denotes knowledge of both the good 
and the true ?’ ’ 

“It is.” 

“But how did man obtain such knowledge 


The Entrance. 


37 

before the influence of the Spirit was felt by 
him?” 

“The Lord provided it. From earliest infancy 
angelic ministries, acting through such as are 
human, under the Lord’s special guidance, 
store our minds and hearts with such truths and 
affections as are adapted to our states. When, 
in after years, we yield to the assaults of evil and 
falsity, the Lord withdraws these germs of good- 
ness and truth into the inmost of our being, where 
they may remain in safety till they are moved 
upon by the Spirit of God. Then is wrought a 
wondrous change. God says. Let there be light, 
and' there is light.” 

“ How glad man must have been !” said Alice. 
“ How beautiful everything must have appeared 
to him !” 

“So when the eyes of our understanding are 
first opened to behold the light of the knowledge 
of truth, we seem to be living in a world of 
beauty of which we before had no conception.” 

“Does light correspond . to truth?” inquired 
Frank. 

“ Spiritual light is truth, or the knowledge 
4 


38 


The Garden of Eden. 


of truth,” replied his mother. '‘In the passage 
before us it means the knowledge of truth. This, 
if properly used, will show the way into Eden.” 

“ The Lord himself is the way, the truth and 
the life,” said Mary. "To enter the garden we 
must follow him.” 

"Alice may read the fourth verse,” said Mrs. 
Harland. 

"And God saw that the light was good: and 
God divided the light from the darkness.” 

" Why was the light good ?” 

"Because God made it.” 

"Why did he separate the light from the 
darkness?” 

"They cannot be together because they are 
so different from each other.” 

"So man’s self-derived knowledge must always 
be regarded as very distinct from that which he 
receives from the Lord. The two must never be 
mingled. They are as opposite as light and 
darkness or as day and night.” 

"God called the light day,” said Alice, 
"and the darkness he called night. And the 
evening and the morning were the first day.” 


The Entrance. 


39 

“The evening here denotes obscurity of know- 
ledge, and the morning clearness,” said Frank. 

“Thus,” said Mrs. Harland, “is described 
man’s state when he first comes into the know- 
ledge of the truth — his first day of preparation 
for Eden, or for a life of supreme love to the 
Lord. But he has taken only one step. He 
must follow on to know the Lord more perfectly 
if he would enter into the rest that remains for 
those who love him. We may now consider 
what is denoted by the creative work of the 
second day. Alice may read the seventh verse.” 

“And God made the firmament, and divided 
the waters which were under the firmament from 
the waters which were above the firmament.” 

“ The natural firmament, or heaven, represents 
the spiritual,” said Frank. “The waters above 
are the knowledge of heavenly things, and those 
beneath, tlie knowledge of earthly things. The 
Lord carefully separates them and stores the 
heavenly truth in the interior life, making, as it 
were, a heaven within. When, in the hereafter, 
man shall lay aside his earthly body and be 
clothed with the heavenly, he will behold the 


40 


The Garden of Eden. 


Lord as he is, and the angels and the external 
beauty of the heavenly world, corresponding to 
the affections and thoughts of the blessed in- 
habitants.” 

“And when the Lord has established this 
heaven within him, with its knowledge as distin- 
guished from that of his earthly life, he is in 
the second stage of spiritual progress or prepara- 
tion for Eden and heaven,” said Mrs. Harland. 

“ What is next done for him ?” 

“The waters under the heaven were gathered 
together into one place, and the dry land ap- 
peared,” answered Alice. 

“Thus,” said Mrs. Harland, “his external 
knowledge is stored in his memory, forming gath- 
erings which are represented by seas : then his 
earth or external life becomes fruitful, producing 
works characterized in some degree by goodness 
and truth, but of a very inferior quality because 
not animated by faith and love.” 

“ These are but tender grass, herb yielding seed 
and fruit trees producing fruit, all of which pos- 
sess a very inferior kind of life compared with 
that of animals and man,” said Frank. “But 


The Entrance. 


41 


still they denote progress ; it is better to do good 
works, even from wrong motives, than to do evil. 
When a man tries to help himself, we should do 
all we can to encourage him.” 

“Yes,” said Mrs. Harland, “for all who have 
reached the Eden state of love have passed over 
this third stage of the journey. Here they have 
learned, what could be taught in no other way, 
that natural means are utterly insufficient to help 
them in that life which is altogether spiritual. 
Then they look away from self to the Lord, and 
he comes into their hearts and helps them.” 

“ By setting the two great lights and the stars 
in the firmament of the inner man to give light 
upon the earth of the outer man ; is that the way 
he helps?” inquired Frank. 

“Yes, my son ; I had those words of the six- 
teenth verse in my mind when I spoke of the Lord 
coming into the heart. Can you tell what is rep- 
resented by these lights?” 

“ The sun and moon represent the two great 
essentials of spiritual life ; these are love and faith,” 
said Frank. “The stars symbolize knowledge; 
what particular kind of knowledge, I cannot say.” 

4 


42 


The Garden of Eden. 


“The truths or knowledges of faith,” said 
Mrs. Harland. 

“The moon and stars are not seen when the 
sun is shining,” said Frank, “but yet we know 
they are still in the heavens. This may teach that, 
when love rules in the heart, faith and the mere 
knowledges of faith are scarcely thought of. Love 
so far outshines them that it seems as though they 
were not needed.” 

“ Love is the fulfilling of the law,” said Mary. 

“But,” continued Frank, “in the night what 
would we do without them ? So with faith and 
knowledge. They help us to see when the sun of 
love is down.” 

“And man, thus blessed, is living in the fourth 
day of his spiritual progress,” said Mrs. Harland. 
“ He begins to live by faith, and his works are rep- 
resented by symbols of a higher kind than grass, 
herbs and trees.” 

“Yes,” said Frank; “animated now by the 
truths of a livings faith, his works are represented 
by the animals of the fifth day — the fishes and 
birds brought forth by the waters. So I read the 
symbols.” 


The E7itrance. 


43 


‘‘You are right,” said his mother; “and now 
can you tell more definitely what is signified by 
each of these classes of animals?” 

“Both are said to be brought forth by the 
waters, the symbol of knowledge or truth. The 
fishes represent works based upon the lower kinds 
of truth ; the birds, those based upon the higher.” 

“In other words,” said Mrs. Harland, “man 
is now represented as producing good works under 
the promptings of faith and love, and in accord- 
ance with the truths stored in his memory and 
the higher intellectual truths of the spiritual or 
heavenly life within him. Those based upon the 
truths of memory, which were represented by seas, 
are the fishes ; those based upon intellectual truths, 
soaring above the external man, are the birds that 
fly above the earth in the open firmament of 
heaven. 

“And now,” continued she, “we come to the 
crowning work of the spiritual creation. On the 
sixth day man’s heart is filled with heavenly affec- 
tions and his works originate in love.” 

“These,” said Frank, “are represented by the 
beasts of the earth.” 


44 


The Garden of Eden. 


‘‘Now,” said his mother, “he becomes a spir- 
itual man, an image of God. His spiritual life is 
delighted and sustained by such things as relate to 
faith and works of charity, which are called his 
meat, while his natural life is delighted and sus- 
tained by such things as belong to the body and 
the senses. His spiritual and natural life are, how- 
ever, at variance, and hence a struggle arises, and 
continues until love gains the dominion. Then 
he becomes celestial or heavenly, and is called a 
likeness of God. Now the Lord rests from all 
the works which he created and made, and man 
enters upon his first Sabbath. Then the Lord 
puts him into the garden of Eden, supreme love 
to him thrilling in every fibre of his being, now 
fully regenerated. 

“But,” said she, addressing Alice, “I am 
afraid you have found our subject for this evening 
very difficult to understand. Do you remember 
what was represented by the earth without form 
and void ?” 

“The natural man destitute of goodness and 
truth.” 

“ The darkness upon the face of iLe deep ?” 


The Entrance. 


45 

‘‘ His ignorance of spiritual things because he 
had merely natural desires.” 

“The face of the waters upon which the Spirit 
of God moved ?” 

“The goodness and truth which the Lord had 
implanted in him from infancy.” 

“ The light of the first day?” 

“ His first knowledge of heavenly things.” 

“ The firmament of the second day?” 

“His internal man.” 

‘ ‘ The waters above ?’ ’ 

“Knowledge belonging to the internal man.’ 

“ The waters beneath ?” 

“Knowledge belonging to the external man.” 
“ The seas of the third day?” 

“ Knowledge or truth stored in the memory.” 

“ The dry land ?” 

“ The external man.” 

“The grass, herbs and trees?” 

“His first external works, before he was ani- 
mated by love and faith.” 

“The sun, moon and stars?” 

“Love, faith and the knowledges of faith.” 

“ The fishes and birds?” 


46 


The Garden of Eden. 


Works animated by love and faith, and based 
upon knowledge.” 

The beasts ?” 

‘‘Works of faith and charity from affection.” 

“ Man as the image of God ?” 

“ The spiritual man characterized by faith in 
the Lord.” 

“ As the likeness of God ?” 

“The celestial or heavenly man characterized 
by love to the Lord.” 

“ Why does the Lord rest?” 

“ His work is ended ; man is fully regene- 
rated.” 

•‘Where does he place man?” 

“In Eden.” 

“May he introduce us all to the state repre- 
sented by this garden — a state of supreme love to 
him ! Then, wherever we may dwell as to our 
earthly bodies, our souls shall be in heavenly 
places, because we shall live, ‘move and h ive our 
being in him.” 



CHAPTER I V. 


THE TREES. 



HE next Thursday evening Alice read : 
‘‘And out of the ground made the 
Lord God' to grow every tree that is 
pleasant to the sight and good for food ; the tree 
of life also in the midst of the garden, and the 
tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 


ii. 9. 

“ What is meant by a tree in the language of 
symbols?” she asked. 

“By a tree in this passage is represented 
man in the Eden state, gifted by the Lord with a 
special perceptive power or means of imme- 
diately knowing the good and the true,” replied 
her mother. “ I will endeavor to make it plain 
to you as we proceed.” 


47 



48 


The Garden of Eden. 


Am I like a tree ?” 

“ Yes, my dear — rooted and grounded in love, 
I hope.” 

“ Is love always the root ?” 

“ It ought to be, if we would grow up filled with 
all the fullness of God.” 

And what are the leaves?” 

“ Truths — God’s truths, I hope, in your case 
to drink in the warm sunlight of his love and 
convey into your life the breath of heaven.” 

“Leaves are called the lungs of plants,” said 
Frank — “ lungs to breathe with. Only think of 
that, Alice : plants breathe !” 

“But,” said his father, “some inhale good, 
wholesome air and breathe out poison.” 

“ So the unregenerate man,” said Mrs. Harland, 
“ receives from the Lord a knowledge of heavenly 
things such as should make him a blessing to all 
around, and yet, perverting it all, and breathing 
out falsity like a deadly upas tree, he blights the 
growth of truth in the hearts of all who come 
within the sphere of his baleful influence.” 

“You seem to be in earnest,” said Mr. Har- 
land. 


The Trees. 49 

“I am in earnest, and justly so. But how 
shall we get back to our subject?” 

“You were speaking about the leaves,” said 
iVlice. “ Now, what are the flowers and fruits?” 

“ Flowers are all sunshine, and fruits are good,” 
said her father ; “ that’s the way I explain them.” 

“And you do well,” said Mrs. Harland, “for 
the sunshine of the knowledge of truth is wisdom, 
and genuine good must needs manifest itself in 
doing good. Flowers and fruits are wisdom and 
good works.” 

“Ask me some more questions, Alice,” said 
her father. 

“Well, it says in our verse, ‘trees pleasant to 
the sight and good for food.’ ” 

“Some were good to look at and the others 
good to eat.” 

“Yes, but we are talking about symbols — sym- 
bols of things in the life.” 

“ Symbols ! What are they but shadows? Give 
me the fruit, and you may have the symbols. I 
want the real thing itself.” 

“Yes, my dear,” said Mrs. Harland, “and 
these beautiful correspondences show us what the 
5 D 


50 


The Garden of Eden. 


real thing is. If we do not understand them, 
how can we tell what the Bible teaches? We may 
have a very wrong idea of a great many parts of 
the sacred Scriptures. See how much truth we 
have already learned from the garden, considered 
as representing something much better than an 
earthly paradise. How it enlightens the under- 
standing and warms the heart to think of Eden 
as indicating the Lord’s love to us, and of the 
east as reminding us of the Lord himself! The 
Lord’s love, the Lord himself, and goodness and 
truth from him j a life according to the know- 
ledge of truth, and crowned with wisdom, and 
fruitful in good works, — are these visionary things, 
airy nothings, spiritual nonentities? What so real, 
substantial and enduring?” 

“A substantial argument, without a shadow of 
doubt, my dear. And now please give Alice a 
substantial idea of the trees while I recover from 
my defeat.” 

“Well,” said Mrs. Harland, addressing Alice, 
“do you remember the names of the two great 
faculties of the mind of which we spoke in our 
first conversation ?” 


The Trees. 


51 

“Yes, mother — the will and the understand- 
ing.” 

“I am pleased to find you remember so well. 
Of what were these to be receptive ?” 

“ Of love and wisdom from the Lord.” 

“We may also say of goodness and truth from 
him, for these are forms of love and wisdom. 
Now, all things mentioned in the Bible relate 
either to goodness or to truth, or to both united. 
Therefore the trees are spoken of as being pleas- 
ant to the sight and good for food. Do you un- 
derstand ?” 

“Yes, mother; one kind of trees relates to 
goodness, the other to truth.” 

“ Which has to do with goodness ?” 

“Those good for food.” 

“ Why do you think so?” 

“ Because it says they were good.” 

“Yes, dear; and the word food also shows the 
same thing. Goodness from the Lord is heavenly 
food ; if we eat or receive it into our lives, our 
souls shall never hunger.” 

“Then does not drink correspond to truth?” 
inquired Frank. 


52 


The Garden of Eden, 


“Yes, my son,” replied his mother; “and re- 
ceiving truth, our souls shall never thirst.” 

“And are not the bread and wine of the Lord’s 
Supper the symbols of goodness and truth?” he 
asked. 

“ They represent the Lord himself as the source 
of all goodness and truth.” 

“ Then,” said Frank, “ when we eat the bread, 
which is the symbol of his love or goodness, and 
which he called his body, we should internally 
acknowledge that from him alone we receive all 
goodness or righteousness ; so, when we drink the 
wine, the symbol of the Divine Truth, and which 
he called his blood, we should acknowledge him 
as the source of all truth.” 

“ Very well,” said his mother, “ but we cannot 
dwell upon this subject more fully at present. We 
shall resume it when we speak of the food which 
man was to eat while he was an inmate of the 
garden.” 

“But,” said Frank, “please explain this pas- 
sage from I Cor. xi. 26 : ‘For as often as ye eat 
this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth 
the Lord’s death till he come.’ ” 


The Trees. 


53 

It seems to mean that as often as we receive 
into our hearts the love and wisdom or the good- 
ness and truth which are from him alone, and 
thus die unto sin^ we show forth his death, and 
that we are to do this until he shall come and 
take up his abode fully in the inmost of our be- 
ing. And now,” continued she, turning to Alice, 
‘‘what trees were in the garden besides those good 
for food ?” 

“ Those pleasant to the sight.” 

“ Of what were these representative ?” 

“ Of truth, were they not?” 

“ Yes, my dear — of the perception of truth. Thus 
by these two kinds of trees we learn that man in 
the state here represented had a perception of 
both the good and the true.” 

“ What is perception ?” 

“A sort of intuition or internal revelation. It 
is peculiar to those who love the Lord supremely, 
and enables them at once to decide whether a 
thing be good and true.” 

“Is it like the instinct of animals?” asked 
Frank. 

“ In some respects like it, but we must re- 
6 •* 


54 The Garden of Eden. 

member that perception relates only to goodness 
and truth.” 

As animals know by instinct what is good for 
food and what hurtful, so man in the love state, 
by perception or internal revelation from the 
Lord, knows what is good and true. Is that 
it ?” said Frank. 

Precisely.” 

“ In other words,” continued Frank, love has 
eyes, and intuitively perceives the essential quality 
of everything.” 

“ The expression, tree pleasant to the sight, has 
a word in it which confirms our explanation. I 
refer to the term sight. By this alone we might 
know that this tree denotes the perception of 
truth as distinguished from the perception of 
good, which is symbolized by the other.” 

“ Seeing requires light, spiritual light is 
truth,” said Frank. ‘‘Thus sight here denotes 
the perception of truth. What wondrous things 
we behold in God’s law! His words are indeed 
spirit, and they are life.” 

Mrs. Harland read from John i. i, 4, 5 : 

“‘In the beginning was the Word, and the 


The Trees. 


55 


Word was with God, and the Word was God. In 
him was life, and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in darkness, and the dark- 
ness comprehended it not.’ Thus,” continued 
she, ‘‘it was in the days when the Word was 
made flesh. Thus it is now.” 

“ How often the Saviour is called the light, the 
true light that lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world !” said Mary. 

Mrs. Harland read Rev. xxi. 23: “The city 
had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to 
shine in it : for the glory of God did lighten it, 
and the Lamb is the light thereof.” 

“What city was that?” asked Mr. Harland. 

“The holy city. New Jerusalem, which John 
saw coming down from God out of heaven pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband.” 

“ Why, John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. 
Perhaps that was the reason he was the one to see 
all these glorious things. Love seems to open 
the eyes.” 

“It does open them,” said Mrs. Harland. 

“But this city,” continued he; “some think 
it is coming now, that its light is already dawning. 


56 


The Garden of Eden. 


infusing new life and activity into the Christian 
Church. What do you say to that, my dear ?” 

“The kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
vation — is not an object of natural sight ; neither 
shall they say, Lo, here ! or, lo, there ! in the ma- 
terial universe ; for, behold, the kingdom of God 
is within you, and there, within you, you are to 
look for it.” 

“ Don’t you expect to see it?” 

“When I am carried away in the spirit to a 
great and high mountain, as John was.” 

“You speak in symbols.” 

“The great and high mountain is the mountain 
of his holiness (Psalm xlviii. i), his Divine Love. 
As he withdraws my affections and thoughts more 
and more from the things of time and sense which 
cause me now to see so darkly, and as he fills my 
heart more and more with his Love and Wisdom, 
while he talks with me by the way and opens to 
me the Scriptures, I shall behold that great city, 
the holy Jerusalem, descending from God out of 
heaven. It is from heaven, and what comes from 
that blessed abode is not material, like things of ■ 
earth.” 


The Trees. 


57 


“Well,” said Mr. Harland, “if we cannot see 
it with these eyes, how do we know but that it is 
coming now?” 

“ Consider what God hath wrought by his Spirit 
in all evangelical churches within the last hundred 
years, and how the kingdoms of this world are, 
by his blessing upon missionary labor, becoming 
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. What 
means the wondrous improvement in the religious, 
moral, mental and physical condition of our rac;e ? 
Who can say we are not living under the dawning 
of a new dispensation, and that He who ruleth in 
the heavens, and among the children of men, is 
not now shaping human destiny in a manner dif- 
fering from anything that has ever before been 
witnessed ? Can ye not discern the signs of the 
times ?” 

“And now,” continued she, turning to Alice, 
“ what was in the midst of the garden ?” 

“ The tree of life.” 

“Lives — in the plural,” said Frank. 

“What would you infer from its being in the 
midst of the garden?” 

“It was the best of all.” 


58 


The Garden of Eden, 


“Then it can have but one meaning.” 

“It represents the Lord,” said Mary; “he 
only is the life.” 

“Yes, Mary; and flesh and blood hath not re- 
vealed it unto you, but the Father, the Divine love, 
inflowing into your heart and opening your spir- 
itual eyes. Such is perception ; it is love opening 
the eyes of our faith.” 

“He is the life of all holy affection and of all 
sacred thought ; thus the tree of lives f said Mary. 

“But why is he called a tree?” asked Frank. 

“Because from him alone is all perception oi 
Divine things,” replied his mother. 

“Then the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil must be the opposite,” said Frank. “Now, 
what is there in man that is most opposed to the 
Lord? Is it not self?” 

“Yes,” said Mrs. Harland, “and this tree 
represented the perception of good and evil from 
self-derived intelligence.” 

“ Why was it in the garden?” 

“Man’s life and death were both before him. 
He was told which to choose, but was left free.” 

“And he chose slavery and death,” said Frank. 


ii 


CHAPTER V. 

THE RIVERS. 

ND a river went out of Eden to water the 
garden, and from thence it was parted, 
and became four heads.” Gen. ii. lo. 

‘^This river,” said Mrs. Harland, ‘‘represents 
the inflowing of wisdom.” 

“The beautiful rivers, how I love them!” ex- 
claimed Alice; “ how delightful to sail over the 
water and look at the grassy banks, and the fields 
and woodlands, and the villages and towns, and 
the great cities 1” 

“And then,” said Frank, “how they fertilize 
the soil and as great commercial highways aug- 
ment the wealth and prosperity of the inhabitants ! 
How soon would all the earth become a desert, 
were it not for rivers 1” 

“So with wisdom,” said his mother; “riches 

59 





6o 


The Garden of Eden. 


and honor are with her ; yea, durable riches and 
righteousness. Her fruit is better than gold, yea, 
than fine gold, and her revenue than choice silver. 
She causes those who love her to inherit substance, 
and fills them with treasure.” 

“Wisdom is the principal thing,” quoted Mr. 
Harland ; “ therefore get wisdom, and, with all thy 
getting, get understanding. Take fast hold of in- 
struction, let her not go, keep her, for she is thy 
life.” 

“And this river went out of Eden,” said Frank ; 
“was not this to teach us representatively that 
all wisdom is from the Divine Love as its only 
source?” 

“Yes,” replied Mrs. Harland; “as rivers rise 
in the mountains of earth, so wisdom is from the 
Divine Love in the heavens. It is as new wine 
from the mountains, and as milk flowing from the 
hills. It is from a 

‘ Land of gold-capp’d dewy mountains, 

Blooming in eternal green. 

‘ Source of all our noble feelings, 

Hallowed thoughts are born above. 


The Rivers. 


6i 


And the pure heart’s strong revealings 
Flow from Him whose name is Love.” 

“ The Lord is called wisdom in i Cor. i. 23, 
24,” said Mary : “ Paul says, ‘ We preach Christ, 
the power of God and the wisdom of God.’ ” 

“ He was the Divine Wisdom — the essential 
wisdom of God.” 

“Jesus is all in all,” said Mary; “we have 
found him in every verse we have studied. He is 
the life of the soul, the east where we behold the 
rising Sun of righteousness, the food we eat, the 
tree of life and a river flowing out of Eden. It 
is wonderful. I begin to look for him in every 
word.” 

“And you will find him,” said her mother, 
“ for the Word is all Divine and relates to him 
and his Church. In the sacred record human 
language and history supply merely the symbols, 
the shadows of things heavenly and divine. 
Everything in the Bible, as he opens the eyes 
of our understanding, reveals to us the Lord. He 
is transfigured before us. We behold his face 
shining as the sun and his raiment white as the 
light.” 


6 


62 


The Garden of Eden. 


Here is a remarkable passage from Ezekiel, 
xlvii. I, which may illustrate our subject,” said 
Frank ; will Alice please read it ? We are be- 
coming so interested in these grand truths that 
we are forgetting our little sister.” 

“ I love to hear you talk about these beautiful 
things,” she replied. And then she read : 

Behold, waters issued out from under the 
threshold of the house eastward : for the forefront 
of the house stood toward the east, and the waters 
came down from under the right side of the 
house, at the south side of the altar.” , 

What house was this?” asked Mrs. Harland. 
The temple at Jerusalem.” 

“ What did it represent?” 

The Lord. While living upon earth he 
called his body a temple. He said, ‘ Destroy 
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 
The evangelist explains by telling us that he spake 
of the temple of his body.” 

“ What are the waters here mentioned ?” 

“ They symbolize the truths of wisdom ; these 
tssue from him.” 


Whither do they tend?” 


The Rivers. 


63 

“ Eastward : they bear us onward toward him. 
Descending from him into our hearts, they elevate 
our thoughts and affections and bring us nearer 
and nearer the Divine source from which they 
come.” 

“ Why is the house said to face the east ?” 

‘‘ To show that all that is represented by it, or 
all that proceeds from him, also relates to him.” 

‘‘What is denoted by the right side of the 
house ?” 

“ The Divine Love ; from this all true wisdom 
proceeds.” 

“ What by the south side ?” 

“ The Divine Wisdom — the true light itself.” 

“ How, then, would you explain the passage ?” 

“ Thus : Behold the truths of wisdom flowing 
from the Lord and tending toward him ; for all 
things that proceed from him have reference to 
him, and these truths are from him, the Divine 
Love and Wisdom.” 

“ How is it that you explain these words so 
beautifully ?” 

“By applying the principle that all things of 
his Word relate to the various forms of goodness 


64 The Garden of Eden. 

and truth or of love and wisdom. I find I can 
thus learn many new and wonderful truths even 
from portions of Scripture which before seemed 
unintelligible.” 

She then requested Alice to read the verses 
immediately following those last quoted from 
Ezekiel. 

“ And the man measured a thousand cubits, and 
brought me through the waters ; the waters were 
to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand 
cubits, and brought me through the waters ; the 
waters were to the knees. Again he measured a 
thousand and brought me through; the waters 
were to the loins. Afterward he measured a 
thousand; and it was, a river, waters to swim in, 
a river that could not be passed over.” 

“Explain that,” said his father. 

“At first the river of wisdom may appear very 
shallow and easily forded, but as we advance it 
becomes deeper and broader — an ocean teeming 
with the living truths of the Word of God.” 

“May our hearts ever be refreshed by this 
river!” said his mother; “then shall we know 
the true value of these waters, and how they fer- 


The Rivers. 65 

tilize and clothe with beauty all the plain of the 
mind, making it a watered garden.” 

Then turning to Alice, she asked, 

“ From what are rivers formed ?” 

“ From springs.” 

“All our springs are in him,” said Mary. 

“ Springs or fountains of water represent Divine 
truths in their freshness and purity,” said Mrs. 
Harland. “ The Word is called a fountain and a 
well of living waters because it contains such 
truths. If we drink of this water, we shall never 
thirst.” 

“Can Alice tell how natural springs are 
formed ?” she asked. 

“ From the rain.” 

“ Rain corresponds to the truths which descend 
from the Lord and refresh and fertilize the soul, 
making it productive of good and truth, and the 
falling of the raindrops symbolizes the inflowing 
of the Divine truth from the heavens.” 

But is not rain sometimes used in a bad 
sense?” inquired Frank. 

“ Most symbols are used in both a good and a 
bad sense. Water denotes both truth and error ; 

G * E 


66 


The Garden of Eden. 


fire, both good and evil. Even Eden may be a 
symbol of evil. Let Alice read from Ezekiel 
xxxi. 1 6, 17.” 

“ When I cast him down to hell with them that 
descend into the pit, all the trees of Eden shall be 
comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They 
also went down into hell with him.” 

‘^In this case,” said Mrs. Harland, ^^Eden is 
self-love and love of the world ; the east is the 
west or self; the garden, self-derived intelligence; 
the river, insanity as to holy things ; and life is 
death.” 

“ Then was not the Flood an inundation of falsi- 
ties which destroyed the wicked in the times of 
Noah?” inquired Frank. 

‘‘A violent pouring dowri of rain and the 
waters of a flood denote immersion in falsities and 
evil, and hence the soul’s destruction. This is 
infinitely worse than the death of the body.” 

Now, Alice, what forms the rain that falls in 
showers and fills the springs again ?” 

‘‘The vapors which are caused to ascend by 
the heat of the sun form clouds, and then descend 
again as rain.” 


The Rivers. 


67 

“ So the truths of the Word, as we apprehend 
them, are influenced by the warm beams of the 
Sun of righteousness and caught up to receive the 
impress of the heavens, and then descend again to 
cheer and bless.” 

“ What is said of the river that went out of 
Eden ?” 

“It watered the garden.” 

“Read from Ezekiel xxxi. 4.” 

“ The waters made him great, the deep set him 
up on high with her rivers running round about 
his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all 
the trees of the field.” 

“ Thus by wisdom, descending from the Lord’s 
love, the mountain of his holiness, the perceptive 
powers of our understandings are made to put 
forth as trees of the Lord’s planting their blos- 
soms and flowers of wisdom. Then we experience 
the joy and gladness. of the regenerate state; we 
realize the Divine promise he has made to us : ^ Ye 
shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace : 
the mountains and the hills shall break forth 
before you into singing, and all the trees of the 
field shall clap their hands.’ ” Isa. Iv. 12. 



CHAPTER VI. 


THE RIVER PISON, 



HE name of the first river is Pison : that 
is it which compasseth the whole land of 
Havilah, where there is gold ; and the 
gold of that land is good : there is bdellium and 
the onyx stone.” Gen. ii. ii, 12. 

‘‘ In our last conversation we spoke of the river 
that went out of Eden to water the garden. We 
also read that it was parted and became four 
heads — that is, was the source of four other rivers. 
This evening we are to consider the first of these, 
the Pison. The name is a Hebrew word, and not 
translated in our English version. Can Frank 
tell what it means ?” 

“It signifies a changing, an opening outward, 
an extension. I suppose it is descriptive of wis- 
es 



The River Pison. 69 

dom in a form differing in some way from what is 
represented by the original stream.” 

“Yes,’’ said his mother, “all things, as they 
descend from the higher to the lower, or, what is 
the same thing, from the inner to the outer, 
undergo a change. The river out of Eden was a 
symbol of wisdom, originating in love which has 
its seat in the highland, the inmost of the mind ; 
this symbolizes intelligence, which may be called 
the first derivative of wisdom, and which belongs 
more to the lowland or lower plane of the mind.” 

“Why, mother,” said Frank, “your language 
of symbols seems ta invest the Scriptures with a 
beauty of which I before had no conception.” 

“It is the language of heaven, my dear, ex- 
pressed as only it can be in the dark sayings of 
earth which cause us to see as through a glass 
so darkly. Oh that the Lord would more and 
more open to us the sacred Scriptures ! What 
wondrous things we should then behold out of 
his law !” 

“What is the difference between wisdom and 
intelligence?” asked Mary. 

“To be intelligent we need only know and 


70 The Garden of Eden. 

understand Divine truths and believe in them, 
but to be wise we must love and do them.” 

‘‘The river encompassed the land of Havilah,” 
said Frank; “is not this a symbol of the mind 
receiving the inflowing intelligence?” 

“ Yes; and whence was the intelligence ?” 

“ From wisdom.” 

“ Whence was that ?” 

“Out of Eden. From the Divine Love.” 

“This beautiful language of symbols!” ex- 
claimed Mary; “it speaks everywhere of Him 
who inspired the penmen to write these holy 
words. Wisdom is indeed better than gold ; yea, 
than much fine gold.” 

“It is the principal thing,” said Mr. Harland. 

“Will Frank please translate for us the word 
Havilah?” asked Mrs. Harland. 

“ It means that which suffers pain.” 

“How painful to be intelligent and yet not 
wise 1” said his mother; “to know our duty and 
do it not ! To have faith without charity 1 To 
believe in the Lord, yet love him not ! The devils 
also believe and tremble ; their intelligence is their 
torment.” 


The River Pis on. 


71 

“Is Havilah mentioned elsewhere in the 
Word?” inquired Mr. Harland. 

“It is' found in Genesis xxv. 18,” answered 
Frank: “And they (the sons of Ishmael) dwelt 
from Havilah unto Shur that is before Egypt, as 
thou goest toward Assyria.” 

“ There is a black list for you,” said his father — 
“ Ishmael, Havilah, the wilderness of Shur, Egypt 
the land of taskmasters, and Assyria the scene 
of the Israelitish captivity. If these names sym- 
bolize spiritual things, the sons of Ishmael must 
have been very wicked to dwell in such a place.” 

“Perhaps it will take us too long to explain 
these dreadful words,” said Mrs. Harland; “be- 
sides, we shall have to speak of Egypt and Assyria 
in full pretty soon.” 

“Oh no!” exclaimed both Mary and Frank: 
“just explain very briefly, now that our curiosity 
is aroused.” 

“Please, mother,” chimed in Alice. 

“I will speak of these names briefly to benefit 
you, not to gratify curiosity. These sons of 
Ishmael lived in states varying from that repre- 
sented by Havilah, in which they enjoyed some 


72 The Garden of Eden. 

slight degree of intelligence, to that represented 
by Shur, in which they had none. You remember 
that the children of Israel, on their journey from 
Egypt to Canaan, went three days into the wilder- 
ness of Shur and found no water. Such privation 
is experienced by all who get into this wilderness.” 

“ Do we ever get into it?” asked Alice. 

‘‘We are very apt to do so, my dear. When- 
ever our thoughts wander away from holy things, 
we get into a wilderness state of mind in which 
there seems to be nothing to cheer us. This 
wilderness of Shur is before Egypt, which repre- 
sents mere worldly knowledge, domineering over 
and crushing out all religious truth, and it is on 
the way to Assyria, which is a symbol of perverted 
human reason, applied to disprove and extinguish 
in all hearts the truths of God’s Word. Now you 
may judge what a dangerous state of mind the 
sons of Ishmael represent.” 

“What state of mind is that?” asked Mr. 
Harland. 

“ One in which more dependence is placed 
upon the natural reasoning powers, when consid- 
ering sacred things, than upon the enlightening 


The River Pison. 


73 


influence of the Holy Spirit. Even our very 
reason itself, in its best state and after the most 
assiduous culture, must be born again before it 
can see the glorious things of the kingdom of 
God.” 

“But,” continued she, “the land of Havilah, 
encircled by the Pison, signifies intelligence from 
wisdom originating in love, and was representative 
in a good sense : it was a land where there was 
gold. You cannot be at a loss to know what 
gold represents?” 

“The gold of that land was good," answered 
Mary. 

“The good of love,” said her mother — “good 
originating in the Divine Goodness. Thus is the 
sacred Book written in accordance with the cor- 
respondence of natural with spiritual and heavenly 
things. The gold of earth corresponds to the 
gold of heaven, and that gold is good, pure good, 
unalloyed with the least of evil. The very streets 
of the holy city are paved with gold : the streets 
are truths leading to and through goodness of 
various kinds, but always perfect ; the city is 
doctrine — the doctrine of the heavenly Jerusalem, 
7 


74 


The Garden of Eden. 


not that which man’s wisdom teaches, but which 
is of God, and in which the blessed inhabitants 
delight to abide. The truths of the good doctrine, 
the doctrine of heaven, in which all dwell se- 
curely, are paved or underlaid everywhere with 
goodness. This indeed is a city of habitation. 

‘ Jerusalem, my happy home, 

When shall I come to thee. 

When shall my sorrows have an end. 

Thy joys when shall I see? 

‘ Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! 

God grant I once may see 
Thy endless joys, and of the same 
Partaker aye to be !’ ” 

“Oh, mother, let me learn the sweet words,” 
exclaimed Alice. 

“May the Lord write them on the tablet of 
your heart as with the point of a diamond !” said 
her mother. 

“And there are bdellium and the onyx stone,” 
said Mr. Harland ; “ what will you say of these ?” 

“Bdellium represents truth derived from love, 
and the onyx stone the truth of a living faith 
originating in love.” 


The River Pison. 


75 


‘‘Why, even the stones, according to this inter- 
pretation, are made to speak,” said Frank. “I 
have heard of the language of flowers, but must 
confess it surprises me not a little to hear, for the 
first time, that stones also have such wondrous 
spiritual significance.” 

“And yet, surely, you know how frequently the 
word rock is used in a spiritual sense?” 

“Yes,” said Frank: “it represents the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Rock of our salvation.” 

“The Lord as the Divine Truth,” said his 
mother. “ If you build upon this foundation, 
your spiritual house, although the fiery tempests 
of evil and falsity may beat upon it, will stand, for 
it will be founded upon a rock. But if you build 
upon the non-cohering truths of merely human 
philosophy, your house will fall, because built 
only upon sand.” 

“But,” said Mary, “the stone which the 
builders rejected, the same is become the head of 
the corner. And now the Church is built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, in 
whom all the building fitly framed together 


76 


The Garden of Eden. 


groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. All 
these things seem to be representative. The corner- 
stone is the Lord Jesus Christ; the builders who 
rejected him are evils and falsities employed in 
rearing spiritual mansions of wickedness; the 
foundation of the apostles and prophets is the 
Lord’s truth which they proclaimed; and the 
building fitly framed together and growing into 
a temple in the Lord is his Church or kingdom 
in heaven and on earth.” 

“And the foundations of the wall of the New 
Jerusalem are garnished with all manner of pre- 
cious stones, which are named in numerical order 
in Rev. xxi. 19, 20,” said Mrs. Harland. “These 
were the jasper, the sapphire and the chalcedony ; 
the emerald, the sardonyx and the sardius; the 
chrysolite, the beryl and the topaz ; the chryso- 
prasus, the jacinth and the amethyst. All these 
signify things spiritual and Divine, and their 
meaning, under the clearer light which illumines 
that city, will be more and more revealed or un- 
folded to those who desire to know them.” 

Mary then read the following poetical descrip- 
tion of the heavenly Jerusalem : 


The River Pison. 


77 


“ Thy walls are made of precious stones, 

Thy bulwarks diamonds square, 

Thy gates are of right Orient pearl 
Exceeding rich and rare. 

“ Thy turrets and thy pinnacles 
With carbuncles do shine. 

Thy very streets are paved with gold 
Surpassing clear and fine. 

“ Thy houses are of ivory. 

Thy windows crystal clear, 

Thy tiles are made of beaten gold ; 

O God, that I were there !” 

And now we must bring our conversation to a 
close.” 

‘‘ Oh,” said Alice, ‘‘ I wish we could talk about 
these wonderful things every evening !” 

“ And I,” And I,” said Mary and Frank. 

‘^As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, 
so panteth my soul after thee, O God — the 
living water, the Divine Truth itself,” said Mrs. 
Harland. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE GIHON. 

ND the name of the second river is Gihon : 
the same is it that compasseth the whole 
land of Ethiopia.” Genesis ii. 13. 

^‘We are now to speak of the Gihon,” said 
Mrs. Harland. “ This, you will remember, is the 
second of the four streams into which ti e river of 
Eden was parted. Will you please state what was 
represented by the original river, the source of 
these four? Alice may answer.” 

“ The river out of Eden represented wisdom 
from love.” 

Very well ; and what are we to understand by 
the Pison, the first of the streams into which this 
was divided ?” 

“Intelligence, the first derivative of wisdom.” 

“In a good sense ?” 

78 





The Gihon. 


79 


“Yes, mother.” 

“Why?” 

“Because it speaks in the same verse of gold 
that was good and of precious stones.” 

“Now, remembering that these rivers proceed 
outward from their source, would you not expect 
that they represent things of an inferior order, 
subservient to wisdom?” 

“ Yes, mother.” 

“ And that the Gihon represents something sub- 
ordinate to intelligence, something that would as- 
sist in making us intelligent?” 

“Yes, mother.” 

“ That would be a knowledge of the good and 
the true.” 

Mary and Frank were delighted when the sub- 
ject was thus introduced. 

Mr. Harland simply remarked, “Alice seems 
an apt scholar. She takes after her mother.” 

“ I have been looking for the meaning of the 
word Gihon,” said Frank. “ It signifies the val- 
ley of grace.” 

“How beautiful to see those whose minds are 
most stored with the varied treasures of learning 


8o 


The Garden of Eden. 


specially characterized by the grace of humility !” 
said his mother. They are the true lilies of the 
valley. ‘ Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed 
like one of these.’ ” 

“That,” continued Frank, “reminds me of 
the story of Sir Isaac Newton, who, after he had 
astounded the world with his brilliant discoveries, 
was heard to say that he felt like a mere child 
upon the seashore, picking up here and there a 
pebble of truth, while the vast ocean lay all un- 
explored before him.” 

“You will feel so too, Frank, as you grow 
older,” said his father. “You haven’t yet mas- 
tered your A, B, C’s.” 

“ The Gihon encompassed the whole land of 
Ethiopia,” said Frank, resuming the subject of 
the conversation. 

“ That was a land that needed it.” 

“ Specially ?” 

“ Yes ; it was so benighted.” 

“ I know it is the home of the sable African,” 
said Frank, “ but are we sure he was more desti- 
tute of knowledge in those days than the inhabit- 
ants of other lands ?’ ’ 


The Gihon. 


8i 


“ I didn’t say he was ; I only said he needed 
learning. And so do we ; we all need the spiritual 
Gihon to flow around us and supply it. But, 
Frank, what have you to say of those who carried 
them into distant lands far away from their much- 
loved Ethiopia, so that they could no more drink 
of the waters of Gihon?” 

“ I have no language to express my abhorrence 
of such inhumanity as has been practiced toward 
a once noble people, as now we know them to 
have been. Only yesterday I read the report of 
a tj'aveler who states that in the interior of their 
native land they still have their colleges and 
schools, the heritage of a remote antiquity, thus 
proving themselves the lineage of a goodly an- 
cestry. ’ ’ 

“There is no doubt,” said Mrs. Harland, 
“that they are the descendants of the ancient 
Cushites or Ethiopians dwelling along the Persian 
Gulf and in Arabia, who, under the name of 
Hycsos, or shepherd-kings, invaded and conquered 
Egj^pt and then passed into central Africa, a 
region still known as Ethiopia. In the times of 
the apostles one of their number, a man of great 
F 


82 


The Garden of Eden. 


authority under Candace, their queen, visited Je- 
rusalem to worship, and was found reading the 
Scriptures (Acts viii. 27). From this we infer 
that they possessed a knowledge of the Lord and 
of his holy Word. And in Psalm Ixviii. 31 we 
read that ‘Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her 
hands unto God.’ ” 

“She would have done so long ago,” said Mr. 
Harland, “but she wasn’t able. She was hand- 
cuffed. But now that she’s free, let us fill her 
hands, sharing with her the choice blessings we 
have received from a common Father. Let us 
undo the work of the past, and we shall find an 
Ethiopian can change his skin as well as a white 
man.” 

“ Can a white man do it?” inquired Alice. 

“ I didn’t say he could. You don’t understand 
me; you must ask mother to explain it. She’ll 
clear it up for you.” 

“What does it mean, mother? It says in the 
Bible, ‘ Can an Ethiopian change his skin ?’ 
What does it mean?” 

“ This, my dear. The skin represents the ex- 
terior life or conduct. Now, this cannot be 


The Gihon. 83 

changed without a new interior, a new heart, 
and no one can give that but God.” 

Now I can understand about a leopard chang- 
ing his spots.” 

‘‘ What is it, my dear ?” 

‘‘Why, a leopard represents another kind of a 
man, and the spots are his sins, and no one can 
remove them but ‘ the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world.’ ” 

“Alice takes after her mother; I told you so,” 
said her father, and he kissed her. 

“And now,” said Mrs. Harland, “does not 
Ethiopia represent any others except the black 
race ? Are there no black men but the negroes ?’ ’ 

“ There are some white men with black hearts,” 
answered Mr. Harland. “ I suppose they are to 
be included.” 

“Which is the worse, Alice,” he asked — “a 
black skin or a black heart ?” 

“ A black heart.” 

“I should think it was.” 

“Black is an emblem of falsity, and white of 
truth,” said Mrs. Harland. 

“ And Ethiopia means blackness, also burning,” 


84 


The Garden of Eden. 


said Frank. “ Thus the land represents the burn- 
ing of evil, which chars and blackens the soul 
until it becomes utterly incapable of loving the 
good and believing the true.” 

“ Why are negroes so black?” inquired Alice. 

“Blackness of the skin corresponds to the state 
of the heart when we cherish all sorts of false 
opinions and live accordingly,” replied her 
father. 

“ And why is Ethiopia so hot ?” 

“Intense heat corresponds to sin, which 
scorches and burns the heart when we say, ‘ Evil, 
be thou my good.’ So, you see, a man may, so to 
speak, be in the middle of Ethiopia while living 
in the heart of Europe or America. It matters 
not so much where he is as what he is and what 
he does.'" 

“And is a white man’s skin so fair and beauti- 
ful because he loves the truth so much?” asked 
Alice. 

“ Not in every case — indeed, I should say, far 
from it. It’s the reason why you and mother 
and Mary and the angels are so pretty ; pretty is 
who pretty does. That’s the motto to live by. 


The GiJion. 85 

and then you’ll grow younger and prettier for 
ever. ’ ’ 

Grow younger ! How can that be?” 

‘‘ Why, dearie, you don’t expect to see decrepit 
old people in heaven, do you ? Just read what 
Elihu says to Job about it. Job xxxiii. 25.” 

Alice read, ‘ His flesh shall be fresher than a 
child’s : he shall return to the days of his youth.’ ” 

‘^Now from Psalm ciii. 5.” 

“ ‘ He satisfieth thy mouth with good things : so 
that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’ ” 

But,” said Frank, both these passages seem 
to refer to this life.” 

^‘Seem! And what if they do? Are we to 
return to the days of our youth in this life and 
not in the other? Or is our youth to be renewed 
like the eagle’s, only to flit a little longer over 
these merely earthly scenes, and not over the 
heavenly ? Such an idea ! Oh, reform it alto- 
gether !” 

And now let us apply the subject to ourselves,” 
said Mrs. Harland \ ‘‘ perhaps we have a benighted 
Ethiopia still within us. If so, what are we to 
do?” 


86 


The Gai'den of Eden. 


Drink of the Gihon,” suggested Mr. Harland. 

‘‘ Yes, my dear, from the river of salvation, the 
Word of God. Let that be the Gihon at which 
to slake our thirst.” 

This is the best knowledge,” said Mary — ‘‘ the 
knowledge of Jesus.” 

‘‘It is a pure river of water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the heavenly Eden, the 
throne of God and the Lamb. Whosoever will, 
let him drink of the water of life freely.” 

“ I would infer from what has been said that 
the Ethiopia of the most ancient times spoken of 
in connection with the garden of Eden was not 
like that of to-day,” said Frank. 

“ No, my dear ; it was encircled by the Gihon, 
representing a knowledge of the good and the 
true derived from wisdom originating in love. 
Happy would we be to live in our day in such an 
Ethiopia !” 

“ How I wish these glorious truths could be 
published, so that all might know them !” said 
Mary. 

“Let us not be satisfied with merely wishing 
it,” said Mr. Harland, “but whatever our hands 


The Gihon. 


87 

find to do, let us do it with our might. A goodly 
company of the Lord’s true workers are already 
thus employed. Their Master has said, ‘ Go ye 
into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature,’ and with hearts overflowing with love to 
him and their neighbor they have gone. Let us 
do likewise.” 

“And as one of the most hopeful signs of the 
times,” said Mrs. Harland, “the Lord seems to 
be descending with the blessed influence of his 
holy Spirit into the hearts of the Ethiopian, and 
again the Gihon of the knowledge of truth is be- 
ginning to encompass the land.” 

They sang : 

“ From Greenland’s icy mountains, 

From India’s coral strand, 

Where Afric’s sunny fountains 
Roll down their golden sand. 

From many an ancient river. 

From many a palmy plain. 

They call us to deliver 

Their land from Error’s chain.” 

And the words had a new meaning. 



CHAPTER VIIL 
THE HIDDEKEL. 

HE name of the third river is Hiddekel ; 
that is it which goeth toward the east of 
Assyria.” Genesis ii. 14. 

^‘This,” said Mrs. Harland, “represents rea- 
son, the next to the lowest means of intellectual 
culture.” 

“What is reason?” inquired Alice. 

“ I am afraid, my dear, it will not be easy to 
make the meaning very plain to you. But we can 
try. Suppose I ask you why you love your 
father?” 

“Because he is so kind to me.” 

“ Now, can you tell what took place in your 
mind while you were preparing to answer my 
question ?” 

88 




The Hiddekel, 


89 


“ I thought.” 

‘‘Yes, my dear, you made up your mind. Just 
as though you said, I love everybody who is kind 
to me ; my father is very kind to me ; therefore I 
love my father. That was reasoning. Do you 
understand ?’ ’ 

“Yes, mother.” 

“Again, let me ask why you should love God 
the most of all beings?” 

“ Because he is the best.” 

“You have reasoned aright. But your argu- 
ment, as we call it, is not fully expressed. In 
your mind you thought somewhat as follows : Of 
all beings I should love him most who is the best ; 
God is the best of all beings ; and then you drew 
the conclusion that therefore you should love 
him most. Such is reason. The first two state- 
ments are called the premises, and the other the 
conclusion. Try to remember these terms. What 
are the premises ?’ ’ 

“The first two statements.” 

‘' The conclusion?” 

“The other statement.” 

“ Now, if the premises are both true, the con- 


90 


The Garden of Eden. 


elusion must also be true; but if either premise 
is false, the conclusion also is false. See what you 
think of this argument : whatever is, is right ; sin 
is, or exists ; therefore sin is right.” 

“ That isn’t true.” 

“Where is the error?” 

“ In saying everything is right.” 

“Yes, that is a false premise, and, therefore, the 
conclusion is false. The argument is not sound. 
I trust you understand?” 

“Yes, mother. You make it so plain.” 

“Now, the Hiddekel represents reason. Shall 
I say in a good sense ?’ ’ 

“Yes, mother, because the Hiddekel flowed 
from the river out of Eden. Everything from 
such a source must represent something good.” 

“Very well, my dear. It denotes reasoning 
enlightened from heaven.” 

“Mother,” said Frank, “I am so anxious to 
learn what you regard as the lowest means of in- 
tellectual culture.” 

“The truths of memory, or mere scientifics, as 
they are called. They are employed in reasoning, 
forming, as it were, the material or premises from 


The Hiddekel. 


91 


which are derived conclusions, or, in other words, 
rational truths or knowledges. These, in the re- 
generate, when applied to spiritual things, con- 
stitute intelligence, and when loved and wrought 
by use into the life, and vivified by Him who is 
life itself and wisdom itself, they become, so to 
speak, our wisdom. I say our wisdom so to speak, 
because no one has wisdom except from him. 
Thus you have a brief statement of the intellectual 
things of man. They are wisdom, intelligence, 
knowledge and the truths of memory. This is 
their true order in the Eden or celestial state.” 

Thank you ; I shall try to remember these dis- 
tinctions.” 

Will you be satisfied by merely remembering ?’ ’ 
asked his father. ‘‘They would be mere science 
in that case.” 

“ I hope, with God’s blessing, they may help to 
make me wise unto salvation.” 

“Then from what source would you get your 
science?” 

“From the Word of God.” 

“ And your reasoning powers ? Will the natu- 
ral ones do ?” 


92 


The Garden of Eden. 


<‘They must be enlightened from above.” 

“Say regenerated, born again. You know this 
is needed in order that you may be thoroughly 
furnished unto every good word and work — a 
workman that need not be ashamed. And your 
knowledges?” 

“Must be the best — to know nothing save 
Christ and him crucified.” 

“Your intelligence?” 

“Must consist of the truths of a living faith, 
prompting to deeds of love and charity.” 

“And your wisdom?” 

“That which comes from the Lord when we 
love him supremely.” 

“Then will the Hiddekel of your mind flow 
eastward toward Assyria. Do you understand ?” 

“Let me consider. The Hiddekel represents 
clearness or soundness of reason ; eastward means 
toward the Lord, having reference to him. So 
much I have learned before. Assyria, in this case, 
must denote the reasoning faculty, the rational 
mind. Then, by the Hiddekel flowing eastward 
toward Assyria is denoted that in the Eden state, 
when love rules, the rational mind of man is in- 


The Hiddekel. 


93 


fluenced by such clearness or soundness of reason 
as shall lead him always to acknowledge and love 
the Lord.” 

“Yes, my son; and how much more profitable 
thus to view these symbols than to think of the 
letter merely^ and thus fritter away our time and 
weary our patience in vainly trying to ascertain 
where the garden of Eden and these rivers were, 
whether in Mesopotamia or Syria, Persia, Baby- 
lonia, Arabia, or in Ethiopia among the Moun- 
tains of the Moon, or in Europe or America, for in 
all these have they been sought. According to the 
spiritual meaning, how the language of Holy Writ 
teems with living truths to water the Eden of the 
heart, and make it ‘ prosper, bud, and bloom and 
gladlier grow !’ ” 

“I cannot refrain from expressing my admira- 
tion at the manner in which, by these symbols, is 
taught the doctrine of man’s spiritual nature, or 
human psychology, as they call it,” said Frank. 
“I have learned more of the true nature of the 
soul and its attributes in these few evenings at 
home than during all the days and nights spent in 
hard study of the text-books upon these subjects 


94 


The Garden of Eden, 


used in the university. I repeat it : I shall make 
the spiritual meaning of the Word of God a spe- 
cial study.” 

‘‘And,” said his mother, “with God’s blessing, 
you may help others to see the light as it is dawn- 
ing upon the world.” 

“Is Assyria always representative in a good 
sense?” asked Mr. Harland. 

“No, my dear,” replied Mrs. Harland; “you 
know it is not. You yourself spoke of it in a bad 
sense a few evenings ago.” 

“I know I did, but I would like to hear you 
explain it. It seems better from you; there is 
more heart in it.” 

“But, my dear, what is a good heart or will 
without a good understanding? You know they 
must make one.” 

“ They do make one in our case, my dear. So, 
you see, when you speak, it is all the same as if 
/ spoke. The only difference is that it’s bet- 
ter.” 

“In speaking of Assyria I think it will be 
worse, for I can assure you I have a very bad 
opinion of a mind perverted by false reasoning, 


The Hiddekel. 


95 

such as is generally represented by Assyria when 
named in the sacred Scriptures.” 

‘‘Do you think the symbol covers rationalism 
as now understood by the schoolmen?” asked 
Frank. 

“Most assuredly, for the rationalism of the so- 
called German savans is seven-fold worse than 
was the Israel itish captivity in Assyria, for its 
tendency is to reason and explain away the Scrip- 
tures until nothing is left of them. It brings the 
mind into the worst species of folly and infidelity. 
It is not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devil- 
ish.” James iii. 15. 

“But now let us have Mary’s opinion,” con- 
tinued Mrs. Harland ; “ she has been very quiet 
this evening.” 

“Silence gives consent,” said Mary. “You 
have all been so earnest I could hardly get a 
word in edgewise.” 

“ Oh ho !” exclaimed her father ; “ you wanted 
to make some cutting remark, did you? You 
mustn’t play with edge-tools, my dear.” 

“I know a great deal more about edging than 
edge-tools.” 


96 


The Garden of Eden. 


‘‘Well, then, border our sentiments with a rosy 
edging. That’s just what is needed.” 

“I do not reason much upon the hallowed 
themes we have been considering.” 

“Don’t you approve of reasoning?” 

“Yes, father, in its place.” 

“Well, what do you prefer to it?” 

“ A ‘ Thus saith the Lord.’ ” 

“Well, truly, that’s a rosy edging, my dear, 
and without a thorn too. Paul says, ‘ Now abideth 
faith, hope, love, these three ; but the greatest 
of these is love.’ Of course, then, love is the 
best of all things ; it puts reasoning quite to the 
blush. And now what does Alice say ?’ ’ 

“I don’t know much about reasoning,” she 
replied. 

“No, my dear; we don’t want you to. You 
are very well off as it is, living so near the source 
of the Hiddekel — in the good of innocence, dearie. 
You are just like the little boy Jesus took up in his 
arms when he said, ‘ Whosoever shall receive one 
of such children in my name receiveth me.’ 
Will mother please explain that for Alice?” 

“ It means, whosoever shall receive from him 


The Hiddekel. 


97 

innocence like that of a little child receives him, 
because from him all innocence is derived.” 

‘‘So, Alice, you needn’t mind about reasoning 
it all out. If you have Jesus, what can you want 
besides 
Alice said : 

“ Jesus loves me, this I know, 

For the Bible tells me so ; 

Little ones to him belong, 

They are weak, but he is strong. 

“ Yes, Jesus loves me. 

Yes, Jesus loves me. 

Yes, Jesus loves me. 

The Bible tells me so.” 

“ And we will sing these words,” said her father ; 

“ they suit us all.” 

9 G 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE E UP HR A TES, 

ND the fourth river is the Euphrates.” 
Genesis ii. 14. 

‘^This evening we shall study a little 
spiritual geography,” said Mrs. Harland. 

Shall we need maps?” inquired Alice. 

“You see I have provided one. Can you find 
Canaan ?” 

“Yes, mother.” 

“It anciently represented various things per- 
taining to goodness and truth, either of the Lord’s 
Church upon earth or his kingdom in the heavens. 
The surrounding lands represented inferior things. 
What river formed the eastern boundary?” 

“ The Euphrates.” 

“ It represented the lowest intellectual things 
98 




The Euphrates. gg 

of the mind. Do you remember what they 
are ?” 

“ The truths of memory.” 

We call them science, or scientifics. They 
are the first truths we learn in childhood, and are 
stored in the memory for use as occasion requires. 
Please find what country was south-west of Ca- 
naan.” 

-Egypt.” 

- This represented nearly the same thing as the 
Euphrates. Do you remember the story of the 
children of Israel in Egypt and their journey to 
the promised land?” 

- Oh yes; it is beautiful ! Please tell me what 
it all means.” 

- The sojourn in Egypt represents how, in our 
childhood, we are instructed in the truths of God’s 
holy Word as the guide and rule of our lives. 
All goes on very well as long as Joseph lives — that 
is, while the heavenly principles implanted by the 
Lord through angelic ministries have their in- 
fluence upon our minds ; but, after a time, Joseph 
dies, the things of heaven in our little hearts lan- 
guish and droop, and at last no longer affect us. 


lOO The Garden of Eden. 

but give place to the hard and stubborn feelings 
and thoughts of our natural life. A new king also 
arises — one that knows not Joseph ; new principles, 
very unlike those of our earlier years, begin to 
rule. Now what do yoii think becomes of the 
Israelites?” 

^‘They become slaves.” 

Yes ; the spiritual and heavenly things of the 
mind, the Israelites indeed, are reduced to a most 
cruel bondage — a servitude worse than death 
itself ! Now what is to help us ?” 

‘‘The Lord.” 

“We continue in the veriest slavery until the 
Lord sends Moses to bring us out of the land 
of our affliction, the Egypt where there is no 
Joseph, naught of heaven to encourage and 
cheer. ’ ’ 

“ What does Moses represent?” 

“ The Word of God ! the Divine Truth.” 

“ I have all along thought he was only a man, 
so afraid to speak to the people.” 

“This fearfulness is recorded of Moses in order 
to show us how unwilling we are, in our natural 
state, to hear the Word in its spirit and life. 


The Euphrates, loi 

There is so little, if any, spiritual life in us, that 
the Word must be accommodated to our ex- 
ternal views — it must come to us from the lips of 
Aaron.” 

‘‘ What does he represent?” 

‘•The external Word, the mere letter. Moses, 
on the other hand, represents the internal Word, 
that which is spirit and life, so refulgent with the 
light of heaven, the Divine Truth, that we cannot 
look upon it unless it is veiled or tempered to our 
sight by the letter.” 

“Just as we cannot look upon the sun shining 
in all his brightness,” said Frank. 

“And you remember,” said Mary, “how 
Moses’ face shone when he came down from the 
Mount, and the people were afraid to approach, 
so that he put a veil on his face all the time he 
was speaking to them.” 

“ It is so wonderful !” said Alice; “I cannot tell 
you how beautiful the Bible seems to me.” 

“Yes,” said Frank, “the law of the Lord is 
perfect, converting the soul ; the testimony of the 
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. More to 
be desired are they than gold — yea, than much fine 


102 The Garden of Eden. 

gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honey- 
comb.” 

“ Did the sufferings of the Israelites grow less 
when Moses and Aaron first spoke to them ?’ ’ asked 
Mrs. Harland. 

‘^They became worse,” said Frank; “the 
Egyptians oppressed them only the more.” 

“ When the Word first comes to us, revealing 
our true condition, we feel all the more wretched, 
and realize that we are in bondage under worse 
than Egyptian taskmasters. Then we see how we 
have falsified and perverted the truth, turning the 
water of the land into blood ; how false reasonings, 
like multitudes of loathsome frogs, have hidden 
from us all the good and the true ; how the sen- 
sual mind has been filled with the vilest of evils, 
like lice produced from the dust ; how, finally, we 
are dead in trespasses and sins, denoted by the 
death of all the first-born in Egypt. Then we are 
ready for our departure ; we say in our hearts : 

‘ I can but perish if I go, 

I am resolved to try ; 

For if I stay away, I know 
I must for ever die.’ 


The Euphrates. 


103 


“ And the Lord delivers us by a mighty and an 
outstretched arm, destroying our spiritual enemies 
in the spiritual Red Sea, the infernal abyss, and 
leads us through all the journey till we enter the 
goodly land flowing with milk and honey, the 
bright Canaan of our fondly-cherished hopes.” 

‘‘ This,” she continued, is the experience of 
the Israel of God, which is so beautifully described 
in Psalm Ixxx. 8, 9, ii. Will Alice please read 
these verses?” 

Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou 
hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou 
preparedst room before it and didst cause it to 
take deep root, and it filled the land. She sent 
out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches 
unto the river.” 

‘•The vine out of Egypt,” said Mrs. Harland, 
“ represents the sons of Israel, the Lord’s spiritual 
Church, elevated out of scientifics or truths merely 
of memory into the truths of intelligence and 
wisdom. In order to prepare room for them the 
the Lord graciously removes all the evils of their 
natural condition, as represented by his casting 
out the heathen or nations previously dwelling 


104 Garden of Eden. 

in Canaan. By the instructions and trials of their 
wilderness march of forty wearisome years he 
causes them at last to be firmly established or take 
deep root, so that, when finally brought into the 
goodly land, they may fill it to the entire exclu- 
sion of every evil. Then love and faith, wisdom 
and intelligence, each in its place according to 
heaven’s own order, extend their sacred influence 
even to ultimates, the mere sciences of the natural 
man, so that they too may lend their aid to support 
and uphold the Divine principles in which the 
Lord resides in the midst of his Church. She 
sends out her boughs unto the sea and her branches 
unto the river.” 

“The river was the Euphrates,” said Frank. 

“Yes,” said his mother, “ representing science, 
the handmaid of religion.” 

“And now,” said Mr. Harland, “will you 
please explain what is said in the second chapter 
of Matthew about the flight of Joseph into Egypt 
with the young child and his mother, and their 
sojourn in that land till the death of Herod?” 

“ Thank you, my dear, for the suggestion. The 
sacred narrative furnishes a beautiful illustration 


The Euphrates. 105 

of our subject. Our blessed Saviour, in his hu- 
miliation, took upon himself all our infirmities, 
so that he received instruction in the same manner 
as other children. This was represented by the 
sojourn in Egypt. ‘ To bruise the serpent’s head, 
he required to have the wisdom of the serpent as 
well as the harmlessness of the dove, and the 
strength of the lion as well as the innocence of 
the lamb. As, then, the Lord, when a child, was 
carried down into Egypt to escape the wrath of 
Herod, so he was initiated into the science ot 
heavenly things as a defence against all his dia- 
bolical enemies. Innocence is not a sufficient 
protection against ingenious wickedness ; cunning 
must be met by wisdom, and wisdom must begin 
from knowledge.’ ”* 

‘‘But what was represented by his mother?” 

“The Church tenderly cherishing the Divine 
Truth, keeping it in her very heart of hearts, 
where it is safest from all harm. You know Jesus 
said on one occasion, ‘ Who is my mother ? and 
who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth 
his hand toward his disciples, and said. Behold my 


* Bruce. 


io6 The Garden of Eden. 

mother and my brethren. For whosoever will do 
the will of my Father which is in heaven, the 
same is my brother and sister and mother.’ ” 

“ And why wait till the death of Herod ? What 
does he represent?” 

‘‘Can you not judge from his character? Can 
there be a doubt as to what is represented by this 
cruel monster who slew all the children that were 
in Bethlehem and all the coasts thereof — from two 
years old and under ? What can do such wicked- 
ness but that most fiendish of all forms of evil that 
would destroy innocence itself in its loveliest ap- 
pearing ? The history before us tells, in language 
that cannot be mistaken, how, even in his earliest 
years, our blessed Saviour was tempted in all 
points as we are — yea, in ways of which we can 
form no adequate conception ; how the arch fiend 
himself was then at work in his bosom, seeking to 
destroy in him the very innocence of childhood. 
But he was divinely preserved as the seed and the 
beginning of all perfection. ‘ Refrain thy voice 
from weeping and thine eyes from tears; for he 
came again from the land of the enemy.’ The 
tempting power could not prevail even against the 


The Euphrates, 


107 


infant Saviour, and the evil intended only recoiled 
with sevenfold intensity upon its fiendish author. 
They were dead that sought the young child’s 
life.” 

don’t wonder Jesus loves little children so 
much,” said Alice. *‘He was once a little child 
himself. How he must pity us when he sees us 
in danger ! I wish I could always be safe. ’ ’ 

‘‘You are, my dear, I hope — 

‘ Safe in the arms of Jesus, 

Safe on his gentle breast ; 

There by his love o’ershaded, 

Safely your soul may rest !’ ” 

“ You’ll have to stay a while in Egypt and learn 
all you can about him from his holy Word, my 
dear,” said her father, tenderly kissing her. 
“ Stay till Herod’s dead, till your childlike in- 
nocence is fully established. May it change only 
to the innocence of wisdom as you grow older 1” 



CHAPTER X. 

DRESSING AND KEEPING THE GARDEN. 

ND the Lord God took the man and put 
him into the garden of Eden to dress it 
and to keep it.” Genesis ii. 15. 

Did man have to work in the garden ?” asked 
Alice. 

“ How could he be happy in such a garden if 
he were idle ?” 

“ But it was in his heart. How could he work 
there?” 

“It is there he must work,” said her mother. 
“ Just consider for a moment how it is with our 
natural bodies. Suppose the heart were to stop 
beating ?’ ’ 

“ We should die. Nothing could save us if the 
heart stopped.” 

“ So with our souls. The heart of our spiritual 
108 




Dressing and Keeping the Garden, 109 

bodies must ever be at work, and do that work well, 
or else we die. Do you know, my dear, that 
God’s love implanted within us is very much like 
a heart?” 

“ No, mother.” 

“It is the very centre and fountain of our spir- 
itual being, our very life.” 

“ Tell me what it does, please.” 

“It sends the warm current of life, consisting 
of innumerable affections or loves of the good and 
the true, through all the avenues or arteries of our 
being ; and as these affections, like so many atoms 
of spiritual blood, flow outward from the centre 
and lose some of their vitality, they are made to 
enter our spiritual lungs or our understandings, 
and are there purified by the truth, the very 
breath of the holy Spirit ; then they return to the 
central fountain of the Lord’s love, to be sent 
again outward, freighted with life for our wisdom, 
intelligence, knowledge and science — yea, even 
for our sensual and corporeal being.” 

“Mother,” said Frank, “I cannot refrain from 
asking you why the heart of our bodies has two 
ventricles, as they are called.” 

10 


I lo The Garden of Eden. 

To correspond to the heart of our spiritual 
bodies.” 

“In what respects? Does this also consist of 
two parts?” 

“Yes, my son; there are two loves, the love of 
goodness and the love of truth.” 

“Why are there two lungs?” 

“Because there are two understandings, the 
one of the good, the other of the true.” 

“ I have no language to express my feelings 
toward Him who has so connected the spiritual 
and the natural that everywhere there is such 
wondrous correspondence. How much is yet to 
be learned ! x\nd I am delighted that it is so. 
So infinite in fullness is his truth, we may for ever 
be happy in sitting humbly at his feet and learning 
from him.” 

“Don’t forget the hands,” said Mr. Harland ; 
“ why have we two of them?” 

“To instruct us that we must do with all our 
might whatever the Lord, in his infinite Divine 
Love and Wisdom, bids us, for the right hand 
corresponds to our will, which is finitely receptive 
of the Divine Love, and the left to our under- 


Dressing and Keeping the Garden. 1 1 1 

standing, which is receptive in like degree of the 
Divine Wisdom.” 

“So you see, dearie,” said Mr. Harland, ad- 
dressing Alice, “there’s plenty to do in the gar- 
den, even if it is in the heart. To proceed from 
the exterior to the interior, let us begin on that 
side which borders on the great river Euphrates : 
what will you do there ?” 

“ Store my mind with spiritual science from 
books and teachers.” 

“ What will be your principal text-book ?” 

“The Bible.” 

“ What knowledge will you learn from that?” 

“The knowledge of Jesus.” 

“Yes, that is the chief of the sciences ; but 
what do you mean by it? Just to know how to 
spell the name and pronounce it properly on cer- 
tain occasions, and tell where he was born and 
what he did and where he died?” 

“ Oh no, father; to know Jesus is to know him 
as my Saviour.” 

“ You mean to love him and have him all the 
time living in your heart, taking care not to do any- 
thing evil or omit to do anything good, for fear 


1 12 


The Garden of Eden. 


you may drive him away ; in other words, shunning 
all evil as sin against him. Is that it?” 

Yes, father.” 

Then he’ll be your Saviour. He will save 
you fro7n your sins, so that they will not have 
dominion over you. Then the kingdom of heaven 
will be within you, and you will be in it.” 

‘‘Are there degrees of happiness in heaven?” 
asked Mary. 

“ Certainly, my dear, the same as here on 
earth. Those who love him most will be the 
happiest. The others will not have so much 
capacity. ’ ’ 

“ How can we tell whether we love him ?” 

“ Nothing is easier. All we have to do is to 
notice how willing we are to obey him ; tQ. follow 
him in the regeneration ; to love goodness and 
truth for their own sake, and not as the means of 
purchasing his favor; to abase self in the very 
dust of humiliation and crown him Lord of all. 
We are saved just so far as we do these things, 
and no farther.” 

“ Who is sufficient for them ?” 

“ The Lord, my dear ; and we can do all things 


Dressing and Keeping the Garden. 1 1 3 

through Christ who strengthens us. Let this be 
our motto. And let us beware of the expressions, 
‘I cannot obey,’ ^ I cannot love such language 
dishonors Him who requires us to obey and love. 
It is burying our talent in the earth and calling 
him a hard master. And now, Frank, how are we 
to dress the spiritual garden in that part over to- 
ward Assyria, on the banks of the Hiddekel ?” 

“ By the right use of our reasoning powers.” 

“ Upon what subjects?” 

“ Upon all to which they can be applied.” 

“ Can they be applied to the investigation of 
heavenly things so as to discover them?” 

“ I should think so.” 

Take care, Frank ; such thinking has produced 
the rationalism of the German theology, and in 
these latter days is getting to be especially dan- 
gerous. The real genius and spirit of true Chris- 
tianity can only be spiritually discerned. We 
cannot, by all our searching, find out the Al- 
mighty to perfection, but after we have found 
him as he reveals himself to us in his holy Word, 
we may discover a thousand reasons for loving him, 
and keeping his charge, and his statutes, and his 
10 * H 


1 14 The Garden of Ede^i, 

commandments, alway. Dent. xi. i. It is only 
after we have been quickened by the holy Spirit 
and born again that we can rightly apply our 
reason to these subjects. Remember this, my 
son, and say to Reason, ^ Thus far canst thou go, 
but no farther.’ ” 

“What would you say to one who did not 
believe the Bible ?” 

“ What could I say? If he believe not Moses 
and the prophets, neither will he be persuaded, 
though one rose from the dead. All I could say 
to such a man would do no good. Except he be 
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

“ Would you not speak to such a person upon 
the subject of religion?” 

“Most assuredly. But not to reason him into 
a belief. Religion does not enter from without 
and pass up into the heart through science and 
reason, but it flows down from its Divine source 
through the very heavens, and is first felt in the 
heart; then reason and science approve it well. 
This is the Divine order ; and if we attempt to 
invert it, we shall find ourselves going backward 
and downward, till the darkness of night close 


Dressing and Keeping the Garden. 1 1 5 

round us and the moon be turned into blood. I 
speak earnestly, for above all things I dread the 
evils of unsanctified human reason when it seeks 
to unveil the mystery of godliness. It is only by 
doing Lord’s will we can know of the doctrine. 
But let us move over to the side toward Ethiopia, 
around which flows the Gihon. How are we to 
dress the garden there?” 

By drinking deep of the waters of intelligence, 
receiving into the current of our own life the 
truths of a living faith and applying them daily to 
every good word and work.” 

“ Then you believe in a faith that works?'' 

“ One that works by love.” 

“ Not in faith as a sort of password to get to 
heaven, so as to luxuriate in spiritual idleness, re- 
clining lazily on the sunny banks, partaking of 
dainty ambrosia and quaffing delicious nectar.” 

“ ^^hat would not be a rest. When the disabil- 
ities of our natural condition are removed, our 
most active employments ifl doing good will be 
rest the sweetest and most refreshing — the rest 
of heaven !” 

What will I do, father?” asked Alice. 


Ii6 The Garden of Eden. 

Be a little ministering angel, my dear.” 

“Now?” 

“ Why not ?” 

“ Mustn’t I wait till I get to heaven?” 

“ And lose all the precious now? No, no, my 
dear; be an angel Alice and you’ll feel the warm 
love flowing from Jesus’ heart through the angels 
into your heart, and hear the sweet voices whis- 
pering in your ear of heaven and its rest.” 

“ Oh I shall be so happy !” 

“ And on the banks of the Bison, in the land of 
Havilah, gather up the golden treasures of wisdom, 
and carry them, speeding on angel’s wings, to the 
destitute.” 

“ Thus,” said her mother, “shall you keep the 
garden for an everlasting possession, partaking of 
the tree of life in the midst and growing more 
and more into his likeness. So shall you be made 
meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” 

“ Let us remember how these instructive lessons 

* 

apply to ourselves. We are all placed by the Lord 
in a spiritual garden eastward in Eden, not to be 
idle spectators of its beauties, but to dress it a'nd 
keep it. If we dress it not, we cannot keep it. 


Dressing and Keeping the Garden. 1 1 7 

The flowers and fruit will soon wither and the gar- 
den itself disappear. Instead, we shall find a 
dreary wilderness, bringing forth thorns and this- 
tles, where in sorrow we shall eat only the herb 
of the field all the days of our life.” 




CHAPTER XL 
THE FOOD. 

LICE, what food was there in the gar- 
den ?” 

“ The fruits of the trees.” 

‘^All of them?” 

“ All except one. The Lord said, ‘ Of the tree 
of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not 
eat. ’ ” 

“ Does he give any reason?” 

“ He says, ‘ In the day thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die.’ ” 

“We spoke of these trees before, especially of 
the one in the midst of the garden ; do you re- 
member what it was called?” 

“ The tree of life.” 

“A representative of what?” 

“The Lord himself” 



118 



The Food. 


1 19 

‘‘All is well when he is in the midst of the gar- 
den of our heart. Let him always abide there, 
and he will supply all our wants, fill our minds 
with heavenly thoughts and affections. Having 
him, we have all things.” 

“ But how can we eat him ?” 

“Do you forget? He himself said, Except ye 
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his 
blood, ye have no life in you. Do you remember 
what his flesh and blood represent?” 

“ His Divine Love and Wisdom.” 

“To eat these is to receive them into our lives, 
so that we may live by them — be influenced by his 
love and guided by his wisdom. Read what 
David says in Psalm xxxiv. 8.” 

“Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; 
blessed is the man who trusts in him !” 

“Do you understand how we taste and see the 
Lord ?” 

“ We taste his love and see his wisdom.” 

“ Yes, my dear ; and we taste his love when we 
receive it into our hearts, and we see his wisdom 
when we come to him with our understandings 
that he may fill them with the light of his truth. 


120 


The Garden of Eden. 


David gives a very good reason for what he urges ; 
you will find it in the same verse.” 

“He says, ‘Blessed is the man that trusts in 
him.’ ” 

“He who trusts him is ever borne on the 
stream of providence to more and more of heav- 
enly joy. We can also taste his Word. See 
Psalm cxix. 103.” 

“ How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, 
sweeter than honey to my mouth !” 

“ Everything sweet in the natural world corre- 
sponds to what is delightful in the spirit.” 

“How we have realized the force of this lan- 
guage while conversing upon these sacred themes !” 
exclaimed Frank. 

“ Yes,” said Mary ; “and Solomon represents 
the Church as saying of her Saviour, ‘ As the 
apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my 
beloved. I sat down under his shadow with great 
delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He 
brought me to the banqueting house, and his ban- 
ner over me was love.’ ” 

“That is a beautiful illustration of the happy 
state in the Eden of the heart when we eat of the 


The Food. 


tree of lives,” said Mr. Harland. “And Jeremiah 
also speaks of eating the Lord’s words. Let Alice 
read from chapter xv. i6.” 

“Thy words were found and I did eat them ; 
and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing 
of my heart.” 

“ So does John, in Revelation x. lo,” remarked 
Frank. “ He says, ‘ I took the little book out of 
the angel’s hand and ate it up, and it was in my 
mouth sweet as honey ; and as soon as I had eaten 
it my belly was bitter.’ But what does this 
mean ?” 

“John’s experience,” answered Mr. Harland,. 
“ represents how the Divine Truth would be re- 
ceived by the Church when approaching its con- 
summation. The little book is an emblem of 
the Divine Truth ; John represents the Church ; 
his taking the book denotes the reception of the 
truth by the Church ; by its being in the mouth 
sweet as honey and afterward bitter is denoted 
that in the last times of the Church a mere pro- 
fession of faith would be very agreeable, but a life 
according to its precepts would seem distasteful. 
Are you aware, Frank, that such a state of things 
11 


122 The Garden of Eden. 

was to be characteristic of the external Church 
when verging toward its consummation?” 

I remember the words : ^ When the Son of 
aman (oometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?’ I 
suppose, of course, he refers to genuine or saving 
iaith, such as Paul means when he speaks of be- 
iimg justified by faith.” 

■^•‘Yes, my son, such a faith as justifies us, or 
makes our life just and acceptable in the sight of 
One vwho eannot look upon sin with any allowance. 
To feelieve an Christ is to believe all the truth he 
teaches, and to incorporate it into our very being 
by liviiig .according to it. ^ The just shall live by 
faith.” Man is not simply to look at the fruit of 
the trees., but to eat it” 

“So,”” said Mrs. Harland, “we are not merely 
to look at <or think about Christ, but to love him — 
so to appropriate him that he may be the Lord our 
righteousaftess. And what as the test of this love, 
this taking to our hearts the blessed Saviour?” 

“ He sa^^s, If ye love nae, keep my command- 
ments/ ” ams'wered Mary. 

“And we love him only^rt? far as keep his 
•commandments. Thus .are we justified, or made 


The Food. 


123 

just. Thus, and thus only, we eat of the tree of 
life.” 

“ And what is it to eat of the tree of the know- 
ledge of good and evil?” inquired Frank. 

“To reject him as our life and choose self in- 
stead, to do as we think best. You remember 
the tree represented the perception or knowledge 
of the good and the true from self-derived intelli- 
gence?” 

“ The very opposite to what is meant by the 
tree of life,” said Frank. 

“It might be called the tree of death,” said 
Mr. Harland, “for whoever partook of its fruit 
was sure to die. You know why it was in the gar- 
den, do you not?” 

“Because man must be left free to choose be- 
tween good and evil; without free agency he 
would have been a mere machine, incapable of 
loving either the Lord or himself. To love one 
above others implies a choice or preference such 
as cannot be predicated of a machine.” 

“Your mother can tell you all about that,” said 
Mr. Harland. 

“The Lord is too wise to err even in the mi- 


1 24 The Garden af Eden. 

nutest details of his providence. The very hairs 
of our heads are all numbered. A sparrow falls 
not to the ground without his notice. Much less 
would he have made it a possibility for the whole 
human race to fall, had it not been infinitely the 
best to do so. In order that man might be his 
likeness, the recipient of life like his own, he be- 
stowed upon him freedom of choice, but, at the 
same time, endowed him with rationality and re- 
vealed to him the good and the true as far as he 
could receive it, so that he might choose aright. 
This state of man is represented by the trees ; 
those pleasant to the sight and good for food 
showed him to be perceptive of the good and the 
true ; the tree of life in the midst of the garden 
represented him as regarding the Lord as the very 
source and centre of his being, from whom he de- 
rived life, wisdom, intelligence, knowledge — every- 
thing that could make him useful and happy in 
this life and for ever blessed in that which is to 
come, while the tree of the knowledge of good 
and evil denoted that it was possible for him to 
turn away from the Lord and incline to self and 
the world. How he fell from this state of heav- 


Tke Food. 


125 


enly-mindedness and became more and more sel- 
fish and worldly is symbolized by his eating the 
forbidden fruit, and his consequent expulsion from 
Eden.” 

“ Does the language, ‘ In the day thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die,’ refer at all to natu- 
ral death?” asked Frank. “ Man lived hundreds 
of years after partaking of the tree of the know- 
ledge of good and evil ; I should, therefore, infer 
that the expression means exclusively the death of 
the soul, or spiritual death. The very sin of diso- 
bedience may, in this case, be considered the first 
of the throes of the death agony.” 

‘‘According to the literal sense,” answered his 
mother, “it might mean that he should begin to 
die, or become subject to natural death. But why 
concern ourselves about the death of the body, this 
mortal coil so many would gladly shuffle off? As 
Alice said a few evenings ago, dying, to the true 
child of God, is but going home ; whence, then, 
the evil ? Well may the dying Christian exclaim, 

‘ The world recedes ! It disappears ! 

Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears 
With sounds seraphic ring : 

11 » 


126 


The Garden of Eden. 


Lend, lend your wings ! I mount 1 1 fly ! 

O grave ! where is thy victory ? 

O death ! where is thy sting ?’ 

So, my children, death is a terror only to the un- 
godly. Natural death symbolizes a departure of 
the spirit out of the frail tenement of clay in 
which it transiently dwelt while in this world of 
time and sense. To him who refuses to partake 
of the tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, by lov- 
ing him and openly avowing his allegiance, it is a 
descent into the regions of woe, where there is 
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth — 
where their worm dieth not and the fire is not 
quenched in a sense infinitely worse than the 
letter of the Sacred Scriptures makes them ; while 
to one who has lived here below in Eden, in su- 
preme love to his heavenly Father and Redeemer, 
it will be the opening of the gates of pearl to re- 
ceive him into the mansions his Saviour has pre- 
jyared for him. 

‘ How sweet to reflect on those joys that await him 
In you blissful region, the haven of rest. 

Where glorified spirits with welcome shall meet him. 
And lead him to mansions prepared for the blest ! 


The Food. 


127 


‘ Encircled in light, and with glory enshrouded, 

His happiness perfect, his mind’s sky unclouded, 

He’ll bathe in the ocean of pleasure unbounded, 

And range with delight through the Eden of love. 

‘ Then songs to the I^amb shall re-echo through heaven. 
His soul will respond, To Immanuel be given 
All glory, all honor, all might and dominion, 

Who brought him through grace to the Eden of love.’ 

^‘Novv,” said Mrs. Harland, ‘‘we have com- 
pleted our view of the Eden of the heart as the 
Lord makes it. Before next Thursday evening 
father will leave us, to be absent from home for 
some weeks. Our next subject will be, ‘ The Loss 
pf Eden.’ When shall we commence it?” 

“ It will be too good,” said Alice, “to have it 
all to ourselves. I would like to wait till father 
returns. Would not you, sister and brother dear?” 

It was so decided. 

“Before we separate, my dear children,” said 
Mr. Harland, “let me express my most fervent 
desire that the Lord God may breathe anew into 
each of us the breath of the lives of love and 
faith, that we may become living souls ! May he 
piant in our intellectual being a garden eastward 


128 


The Garden of Eden. 


in Eden, so that we may continually receive the 
warm light of the ever rising Sun of righteousness, 
and have the clearest perception of the good and 
the true ! But, above all, in the very inmost of our 
souls, may there be the tree of life, the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself! May the leaves of the tree thus 
planted in the heart of our love be for the healing 
of all our evils, and its fruits be to us the sweetest 
of manna, the bread of heaven, that we may hunger 
no more ! Then out of the Eden of our hearts 
will go forth the river of wisdom encircling the 
good, and the clear stream of intelligence from 
wisdom to enrich us with the treasures of heavenly 
knowledge, and the waters or truths of sanctified 
reason and science to furnish us ever with new 
proof of the love and wisdom of our heavenly 
Father. May his blessing be vouchsafed us as we 
dress the garden, so that we may be enabled to 
keep it, until he shall say, ‘ Well done, good and 
faithful servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few 
things. I will make thee ruler over many things : 
enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.’ ” 


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